Two Sides of the Same Coin
by AngelofGrace96
Summary: Not-so-Typical Lord-of-the-Rings story with a twist! Includes a pretty awesome OC, inventive cursing and MPD. WILL NOT BE ABANDONED! Legolas/Alanna(OC) Beware the rabid Disclaimers, they will come back to eat you! Seriously, enjoy!
1. Prologue

**Two Sides of the Same Coin. **

**An A/N from AngelofGrace: This is a fan fiction of Lord of the Rings, reviews will be welcomed, but we don't know if suggestions will change the path of the story, so stay tuned and review to your hearts content. Also, we can promise to post this every week, on the dot, so you won't be waiting ages for this. Now, one more thing, then on to the official statement!**

**Age Guide**

**100 is the age at which elves 'come of age' in this story so the elven age of 100 is more or less the same as the human age of eighteen. Alanna isn't 100 yet so she is effectively a teenager, However Legolas is, so he is slightly older than her. Below is a more detailed guide.**

**Elvish Age/ Human Age**

**20/10**

**30/11**

**40/12**

**50/13**

**60/14**

**70/15**

**80/16**

**90/17**

**100/18**

Angela: Alright for whoever actually reads my crap, listen up!

I, _AngelofGrace_, am co-authoring this with my best friend, _QueenKoboi_, so she did most of the work, I just helped. Opal is an expert on all things LotR and I'm the ideas person. Opal did a truly awesome job on this, I just gave her motivation and ideas. With that done, on with the story.

Opal: Angela, I think you forgot something.

Angela: What?

Opal: *sarcasm* Oh I don't know... Maybe... The disclaimer

Angela: *bangs head against wall*

Opal: Stop that this minute! You're turning into Dobby!

Angela: *tries and fails to walk in a straight line* This is why you're here, Opal, to keep me as sane as possible.

Opal: *snickers* That's not much!

Angela: HEY!

Opal: Anyhow. You lot *turns to readers, hands on hips* will recognise characters that belong to J.R.R. Tolkien and don't you forget it! However, although neither of us own Lord of the Rings, the character Alanna belongs to us.

Angela: Yeah! *winces as Opal cuffs her upside the head* Ow!

Opal: Quiet!

Angela: Bye!

Opal: I said, **quiet**!

Angela: Yes, Miss Koboi.

Opal: You know full well that you are to address me as 'Your Majesty', missy! *proceeds to grab random sword that is lying on teacher's desk and chases Angela around and around the classroom, much to the amusement of the other students, until teacher enters and puts both girls in detention*

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**Prologue**

Alanna didn't always have MPD, it was caused by an injury, one day when she was sparring with Legolas in the forest. Before that though, her father, Elrond, Lord of Rivendell had decided to send Alanna, along with a whole host of tutors, to Mirkwood, to arrange a suitable alliance between Legolas, the son of the king of Mirkwood, and Alanna, as the two were the same age, give or take a couple of years. He knew he would miss his youngest daughter terribly, but he also knew that if, as he hoped, Legolas and Alanna were to be a successful couple, which he also hoped would not happen for several decades, no matter how successful the marriage could be, then they should spend as much time together as possible. So he sent his 15 year old daughter off to stay with the then 17 year old Legolas, and hoped for the best.

Alanna spent several years in Mirkwood, spending almost all of her time, free or otherwise with her best friend, Legolas. Because she spent so much time with a boy, she picked up some very tomboyish habits. She decided to leave her jet-black hair the way it was and the most she ever did with it was pull it all up into a ponytail so that it didn't get in the way. She had sapphire-blue eyes that, when she was cross, gave new meaning to the phrase, 'If looks could kill'. She did not enjoy wearing dresses for any reason, although Legolas teased her about it every time she did. She was an excellent archer and could hit a spiders thread at forty paces, but her true skill was with a sword.

At the age of 45, she had beaten Legolas in a sword fight, and he had never beaten her since.

This led them to their current situation. It was 15 years later (Alanna was now 60), and Legolas was, for the umpteenth time, trying to beat Alanna in a swordfight. This time, they were fighting along a narrow forest trail, overhung with branches and covered in rabbit holes. After about the 50th time Alanna had beaten Legolas in a swordfight, she started letting him pick the settings, in the knowledge that not all fights would be fought on a fair ground, and she really should practice on all sorts of terrains. So far they had fought in the middle of the woods, along the banks of the river that ran through Mirkwood (Alanna had won that duel by tripping Legolas into the river) and they had even fought each other on horseback.

Alanna was smirking at Legolas as he swiped at her fruitlessly again and again, while she parried every time. They were moving along the path as they fought and Alanna, through no fault of her own, was walking backwards, so she did not notice the large branch lying across the path behind her until she tripped over it and fell to the ground.

Legolas dropped his sword, ran over to help Alanna and found that she had hit her head when she fell and had been knocked out. A few moments later, Alanna stirred, opened her eyes and Legolas immediately knew that something was wrong. Her eyes were different somehow. They were less piercing and didn't give you the usual feeling that Alanna could somehow read your mind anymore.

'Alanna?' Legolas asked, warily. He expected one of her trademark sharp responses as in '_No. I'm the Queen of Gondor. Of course it's me! Who the heck did you think it was?_' but instead she said, 'Good afternoon.'

This would have been perfectly alright with Legolas had Alanna not, almost immediately afterwards, come out with, 'And, you are?'

_Uh oh_, thought Legolas. _The word strawberries might fit well here._

Aloud he said, 'Prince Legolas at your service.'

'Oh you silly, silly girl, Charlotte!' the girl said to herself, then spoke to Legolas. 'Still, it is technically the first time I've seen you so I think I have an excuse.'

Her voice was different. It was lighter and slightly higher in pitch as well. A more girly voice than her normal one.

This last statement left Legolas stumped. His brain tried, and failed, several times, to process what was going on until he finally decided to go with the flow and think later.

'So… you aren't Alanna then?' he asked.

'Oh don't be silly, your Highness!' she giggled. 'Of course I'm not!'

_That's it_, thought Legolas. _This girl is definitely not Alanna. Alanna never giggles or dares to address me by my title._

'Then who are you?' he asked out loud.

She extended her hand. 'I am Charlotte. Pleasure to meet you, your Highness. Thank you for knocking Alanna out, by the way.'

Legolas tentatively shook her hand. 'It wasn't me, actually, but you're welcome.' _I think..._

'It **is** good to be out of there,' Charlotte said, happily. 'I have been wanting to take control for such a long time. Ever since Alanna almost got herself killed by that dragon.'

Two years ago, Legolas and Alanna had sneaked off (that is, Alanna had sneaked off, and Legolas followed, so as to try and keep her out of trouble) to accompany a party of 13 dwarves and a hobbit as they robbed the treasure hoard of a particularly malicious dragon. Legolas, who was almost as good with a bow as Alanna, had managed to shoot the dragon, but not before Alanna (who had somehow ended up on the dragon) had fallen off the dragon and into the lake below. Alanna had come away from the incident with most of her ribs broken, a broken left arm and a spectacular cut running the length of her right (unbroken) arm. All of her injuries were due to the dragon slamming his tail into her as she fell and she had remained unconscious for a week. There had been much debate amongst the elves of Mirkwood as to whether she would survive but Alanna had woken a week later seeming perfectly normal and no one suspected a thing.

_Uh-oh_, thought Legolas, returning from his memories of the dragon disaster to the realities of the present disaster, _Multiple Personality Disorder. I should have known that she wouldn't have been quite right after injuries that were that serious. _And then he thought, _Lord Elrond is going to murder me._

While Legolas was coming to this conclusion, Charlotte was complaining about Alanna and how she was _soooooo_ tomboyish and never did _this_ right with her hair and never got _that_ quite right with her clothes and blah blah blah. Legolas wondered exactly how long it would take Charlotte to drive him insane.

'For the sake of my sanity, would you kindly shut up?' he asked finally. She fell silent, watching him.

_If Alanna could see this idiot, she would die of shame,_ Legolas thought as he got to his feet and started pacing back and forth across the path.

**Inside Alanna's head**

Alanna found herself in what appeared to be her bedroom in Mirkwood. The only difference was that one of the walls appeared to be a large window. In reality, Alanna was inside her own head and the 'window' looked out onto the real world. She could see what Charlotte saw, hear what Charlotte was saying, hear Charlotte's thoughts and access certain parts of her mind, but, to Alanna's distress, she could not take control.

_If I ever manage to retake control of my mind,_ she thought,_ I am going to have to apologise to Legolas about this idiot._

Right now Charlotte's thoughts consisted mainly of complaints about Alanna but there was a small part of Charlotte's mind that Alanna could not access. With nothing better to do, seeing as she doubted she could escape and resume control of her mind, Alanna swiftly analysed the parts of Charlotte's mind that she could access, determined what was missing and therefore figured out what the blocked part of Charlotte's mind contained.

'At least we have **something **in common,'Alanna said aloud, wondering if Charlotte could hear her.

Evidently, Charlotte could as she swiftly asked with her thoughts, _And what might that be?_

'We both fancy Legolas. Although please don't tell him I said that,' Alanna replied.

_I do not fancy him!_ Charlotte said, indignantly. _That's you._

'Yes you do and there's no point in denying it,' Alanna said, feeling very foolish as it seemed that she was talking to thin air and also wondering how long it would take Legolas to figure out that all he had to do to get Alanna back was knock Charlotte out.

Alanna wasn't used to being idle. She quickly became bored with watching Legolas pace back and forth and took to trying to resume control of her mind. She checked every nook and cranny but found no way of escape. It seemed that the only way out was for Charlotte to annoy Legolas so much that he knocked her out.

_Hurry up, Legolas_, she thought, _I'm not sure I can stand this much longer._

**Somewhere in Mirkwood**

_Hmmmmm..._ thought Legolas, as he paced back and forth, _If Alanna has MPD, then there must be something that occurs to trigger the change. But what is it..._

While Legolas was thinking, Charlotte was inspecting Alanna's choice of weapons.

'I must admit, Alanna really is very good with a sword but it simply isn't proper for a lady to carry one,' Charlotte said (she was yet to realise that Legolas wasn't listening). 'Moreover, while it isn't proper for a lady to carry a sword, it is even less proper for a lady to know how to use one.'

'That's it!' exclaimed Legolas, interrupting her analysis.

'What's it?'

'All I have to do is knock you out and Alanna will be back!'

'Oh but you wouldn't,' Charlotte said, in a tone of such sickening sweetness that it would have made Alanna throw up. 'You are far to chivalrous to do that.'

'Oh am I?' Legolas asked.

'Yes. You are.'

'I wouldn't be so sure of that,' Legolas said, and knocked her on the side of the head with the hilt of his sword.

**Inside Alanna's head, moments before Legolas knocks Charlotte out**

'Finally!' Alanna cried, leaping to her feet from where she had been sitting on her virtual bed.

_Finally what?_ came the questioning thought from Charlotte.

'Finally he works out what he has to do to release me.'

_He may have figured it out but he won't do it, he's far to chivalrous._

'Are you sure?' asked Alanna, watching Legolas pick up his sword.

_No,_ came Charlotte's surprised reply as Legolas's sword hilt collided with the side of her head.

_In theory,_ Alanna thought, hopefully, _this should only hurt Charlotte and not me as technically I am just a figment of my imagination right now._

She was wrong.

**King Thranduil's palace, Mirkwood, now**

Alanna regained consciousness and found herself lying on her bed in King Thranduil's palace. The door opened and she sat up reaching for her sword but it was only Legolas bearing a tray of tea and toast. Legolas set the tray down on Alanna's bedside table, sat down on the end of her bed and took a deep breath.

'Allie, we need to talk,' he said, using her nickname.

'I know, I know,' she replied. 'I'm crazier than an orc in the light of the sun. And I do apologise for that idiot and all the nonsense she was spouting. I have no idea where that came from.'

'Not quite the words I was going to use but the essence of the matter is there.'

The pair were silent for a moment before Legolas thought of something.

He lowered his voice unnecessarily, because Alanna had gone to great lengths to make her door eavesdropper-proof, and whispered,

'Has it affected your rethos form?'

Alanna shrugged her shoulders. 'I can ask her, if you'd like?'

Legolas gaped at her. 'Can you do that?'

She smirked, before drawing her legs up into the meditation position and closing her eyes. 'I guess we'll find out, won't we?'

She drew deeper and deeper into her mind, not actively searching, just looking around. As she moved deeper into her mind, she found something she had never seen in her own mind before. She drew closer, and beheld a small, pink-painted door, with a little sign on it that said 'Charlotte's Room'.

_It had to be pink, didn't it,_ Alanna thought before she opened the door and went inside.

It looked like the room she had been trapped in earlier, but now there was someone else sitting on the bed, humming to herself. Alanna realised that she now had a physical form, something that she usually didn't have, not while wandering her own mind, anyway. She walked into the room and addressed the stranger, who had her back to her.

'Charlotte?'

The girl turned around and stood up. Alanna discovered that Charlotte's appearance was completely different. She was blonde haired and fair skinned. She had cherry lips and was about half an inch shorter than Alanna. In fact, the only physical feature the two girls had in common was their sapphire blue eyes.

'That's me,' Charlotte answered. 'Wait, how did you get in here? You've never been able to get in here before.'

Alanna sat down on the bed.

'I actually looked,' she replied. 'Do you have a rethos form?'

'Rethos,' Charlotte mused. 'I've heard of that.'

'You know, how I can become a wolf at will?'

'Oh yes. That's it.'

Both girls were silent for considerable time, each waiting for the other to continue.

'And?' Alanna finally said.

'And what?'

'And what, pray tell, is your rethos form?' Alanna said through gritted teeth.

'This,' said Charlotte smugly.

She closed her eyes, focused, and within a heartbeat a small tortoiseshell cat sat preening itself on the bed.

About this time, Legolas, who had been pacing Alanna's bedroom nervously, turned around and almost screamed at the sight of a small tortoiseshell cat curled up where Alanna had been seconds before. He covered his mouth guiltily.

_I am so glad Alanna didn't see that,_ Legolas thought. _She'd never let me forget it. _

**Inside Alanna's head**

Alanna smiled and stroked the cat, who purred lazily for a while, then stretched and Alanna walked away and watched the cat turn into Charlotte again.

'You're very pretty.' Alanna told Charlotte.

'I know.' She practically preened. 'But I'm a lot more useful than just a pretty face. Look!'

She changed back into a cat, focused on a darkened corner, and ran straight at it. Just when Alanna thought she would run straight into the wall, the shadows rippled like a mirror, and the cat passed right through. After a few seconds the cat bounded out of a different shadow and changed back into Charlotte.

For once Alanna was speechless. Finally she found her voice. 'How did you DO that?'

'Oh, I'm a shadow cat. Means I can run through shadows to get to any destination I've been to or at least seen images of. It works outside as well. Cool, huh?' Charlotte was definitely preening now.

'Would it work for me, too, do you think, because we share the same body?' Alanna asked hopefully.

Charlotte shrugged. 'Give it a try.'

Alanna opened the door and looked out into her mind. Her own form, a shadowy grey wolf, was there prowling at the edges of her mind but there was no sign of a cat. At least, until a black, brown and white streak shot past her virtual head and shot under the bed. Alanna and Charlotte peered into the gloom underneath it. A pair of green eyes blinked back at them.

'I'd say it does work for you,' Charlotte said, dragging the cat out.

It curled up on the end of the bed and started to our when Charlotte scratched its ears.

Alanna focused on the cat, and soon the world grew and she was now a shadow cat. She spent some time exploring the Shadow-travel Ability until she suddenly remembered Legolas, waiting patiently or not-so patiently for her to return.

She said her goodbyes to Charlotte and walked through the door, finding herself once more in her drifting mind. She pulled out of her trance slowly, and opened her eyes to see Legolas staring worriedly down at her.

'Allie! Thank goodness! I've been waiting nearly an hour. You were a cat for ages, then you changed back then you woke up. Is Charlotte's form a cat?'

Alanna nodded, suddenly exhausted. She lay down and looked at Legolas.

'What are we going to do about my Father?'

'Lord Elrond is going to kill me. How am I ever going to tell him?'

'The question is, **are** you going to tell him?'

'Oh don't be silly. Of course I am.'

'If I promise to be incredibly careful in future and allow you to be overprotective, as you so often try to be, would you promise not to tell him? I mean, if he knew, it'd be straight back to Rivendell with me and no leaving Rivendell for the rest of my life.'

'Hmmmmm... It would mean no more adventures for either of us. Are you prepared for that?'

'It doesn't necessarily mean no more adventures. It just means that we'd have to be extra careful.'

Legolas thought about it while Alanna helped herself to the tea and toast.

'Deal,' said Legolas finally, extending a hand.

'Deal,' agreed Alanna.

They shook hands and upheld their respective ends of the bargain for thirty-eight years, by which time the matter had shifted to the back of both of their minds. But the back of Alanna's mind wasn't quite the safe place it used to be...

**A Note From Angela and Opal:**

**Opal: Okay. I am new to the FanFiction writing thing unlike Angela so I'd really like to know what you all think of this. Angela wrote the first half-ish of this prologue and that was enough to get me started on the entire rest of the story. Kudos to Angela for coming up with the idea for the shadow-cat and the whole rethos idea. She also came up with the name for it so big thanks to Angela. Please review and tell us what you think.**

**Angela: Opal and I can promise to post this every Friday on the dot so you have something to read over the weekend.**

**Opal: So, again, please review as we appreciate all feedback.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One- Of Ringwraiths and Trolls**

Angela: We don't own Lord of the Rings but Alanna and Charlotte belong to us.

Opal: Well said. Short and to the point.

Angela: Thank you, your Majesty.

Opal: You're welcome.

Angela: Did those frogs keep you awake last night?

Opal: ...

Angela: Seriously! The are the noisiest thing ever invented! Sure they look kinda cute but the noise they make! Reek reek reek reek! All night long! I swear I didn't get a wink of sleep last night with all their racket.

Opal: Ummmm... Exactly how much sugar did you put in your porridge this morning? I think it seems to have affected your attention span. Twenty seconds ago, you were talking about the disclaimer, which is what you are **meant** to be doing.

Alanna: *appears in office doorway looking menacing*

Opal: *frantically starts typing*

Alanna: Hmmmmm...

Opal: *looks innocent* *points at Angela* She started it.

Angela: Hey!

Alanna: *growls*

Angela: *looks innocent*

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**Thirty-eight years later...**

Alanna, in her wolf form, stood silently behind a branch on the outstretched arm of a stone troll. It was twilight and below her, in a little clearing edged on three sides by another two stone trolls, sat four hobbits and one man. The hobbits names were Frodo Baggins, Samwise (Sam) Gamgee, Meriadoc (Merry) Brandybuck and Peregrin (Pippin) Took and the man was called Strider. The five of them were known to Alanna, who had accompanied Frodo's uncle, Bilbo, on an adventure to recover a large amount of treasure from a particularly vicious dragon, although only Strider had met her face to face.

Sam was now singing a song about trolls and Alanna suppressed a smile, her wolf muzzle twitching.

_That's Sam_, she thought.

Alanna had been sent out by her father, Lord Elrond of Rivendell, to look for the hobbits and guide them to Rivendell. It wasn't an unenjoyable task (she had hardly left Rivendell since she had returned from Mirkwood after spending most of her life there) but she just wished that it didn't involve crossing paths with Strider (whose real name was Aragorn).

Samwise had finished his song and the hobbits were all congratulating him when suddenly Merry asked, 'Have you ever had the feeling that you're being watched?'

Alanna double checked that she was well hidden behind the branch of the tree that had overgrown the troll. The hobbits couldn't have seen her if they had been standing right in front of her, plus, she didn't think they would enjoy seeing a wolf watching then from the shadows.

All would have been fine (the hobbits were dismissing Merry's feeling as paranoia) had Alanna's horse, which was picketed a little way away in the trees, not decided at that moment to take fright at nothing and whinny. The little group in the clearing leapt to their feet, all of them drawing swords.

Alanna cursed for the thousandth time at having to bring a horse. She was perfectly capable of running as a wolf all day long but her father was paranoid she might get shot by hunters and insisted she take the horse.

_Stupid horse_, Alanna thought contemptuously.

After a long, tense minute, the group relaxed a little but then an owl hooted and dive bombed Alanna causing her to yelp and lose her balance. She toppled backwards and fell into a clump of bushes below the troll. She quickly changed back before Strider or the Hobbits could see her. Rethos forms **were** only gifted to elves, and it was the closest elf secret ever kept. Alanna privately agreed with the idea. One could never have too many tricks up their sleeves, after all.

Strider took one look at her face and smiled in an annoyingly triumphant way.

'Caught in the act,' he said. 'I might have known you would try and find us. From what I've heard, you just aren't the type to ignore the beginnings of an adventure.'

'Yes, yes, Strider,' she replied with the air of one who has been in this situation a thousand times before. 'You don't have to rub it in. Coming and finding you wasn't actually my idea, by the way.'

'Of course it wasn't.'

'Don't look at me like that. Elrond sent me out to look for you.'

While they were talking, Alanna disentangled herself from the bushes and got to her feet.

'I believe some introductions are in order,' Aragorn said, catching the inquisitive looks on the hobbits' faces. 'Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, this is Alanna. Alanna is Lord Elrond's youngest daughter. Alanna these are-'

'Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin. I know. What you don't know is that I followed these four from Bag End to the Prancing Pony in Bree. That was when I went back to Rivendell because I knew you'd be in the pub and the hobbits would take up with you and the lot of you would be perfectly fine without me.'

'You wouldn't happen to be the same Alanna who accompanied Bilbo Baggins and Thorin Oakensheild and company from Mirkwood to the Lonely Mountain would you?' asked Pippin.

'I would,' Alanna replied, looking more than a little surprised at this.

'And is it true that you almost got killed by the dragon, Smaug the Magnificent?' cut in Merry.

'Yes, I'm afraid it is,' Alanna sighed. 'The dragon did get killed, though. Which was something.'

'We'll have plenty of time for stories later,' Aragorn interrupted, returning to the subject at hand. 'We could have used you at Weathertop. You could have driven those Wraiths away in ten seconds.'

'Wraiths... You mean the Nazgûl?!' Alanna squeaked. 'Were any of you hurt?'

Before Aragorn could reply, Frodo sank to the ground.

'My master is sick,' Sam said, quite unnecessarily.

Aragorn wordlessly handed Alanna the hilt of the dagger the Ringwraith had used to stab Frodo in the shoulder. Alanna took the hilt but immediately yelped and dropped it as though it had burned her.

'How about you take that and we'll concentrate on getting to Rivendell without being caught by those abominations,' she suggested.

'We can't leave now!' Aragorn exclaimed. 'Frodo is injured and we've been on the move all day!'

'I'm not saying we should leave now, I'm saying we should concentrate on not getting ourselves caught and killed by the N-nazgûl.'

'If I didn't know better, I'd say you were scared of them.'

'Who wouldn't be? They are one of perhaps three things, or rather types of things, that really make my blood run cold.'

'Personally, I don't blame you. But for now, let's get some sleep and get going in the morning.'

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The next morning, the company left the trolls behind and travelled East. Frodo insisted upon walking and refused to ride Alanna's black stallion, Asfaloth. After two days of walking, however, everyone but Frodo agreed that Frodo should ride and preserve his strength.

'I won't ride him if he's going to gallop off to Rivendell with me leaving my friend's in danger,' Frodo argued.

'I very much doubt that your friends would be in danger if you weren't with them,' Alanna said, dryly.

Frodo couldn't argue with that so he allowed Alanna to shorten the stirrups as far as they would go and lift him into the saddle.

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After several more days of travelling, they reached Ford of Bruinen. Everyone knew that if they could get across the river, they would be safe and would soon be in Rivendell. However, it was getting across the ford that was the problem.

Along the road for about half a mile before the ford there was a small wood. At the end of the wood the road took a sharp turn, there was a long stretch of grass and then the river itself. Aragorn and the hobbits hid in a small clearing while Alanna went ahead to check whether the ford was held against them.

There was no sign of anyone so Alanna stole back to the others.

'The coast seems clear but I don't trust those Wraiths. There are more trees about twenty yards from the ford on either side of the road. They could be hiding in there and waiting to ambush us.'

'What are we going to do then?' asked Sam. 'If we go out there they could be waiting for us but if we stay here, they are bound to find us anyway.'

'I have a solution, but I don't think you are going to like it,' Aragorn said to Alanna.

'Assuming that I'm thinking what you're thinking, I think it's the only way,' she replied a little sadly.

Aragorn whispered something in her ear and she nodded.

'I'm not asking you to do this,' Aragorn said, firmly. 'But if you are willing...'

Alanna smiled at him, a most unusual action from her. 'It won't be as hard as you think, you know. I'll be fine.'

Aragon looked unsure, but let it go.

Alanna turned to lengthen the stirrups on Asfaloth's saddle and then turned back to the hobbits.

'When Aragorn gives you the signal, run for the ford,' she said. 'Run as fast as you possibly can and don't stop or look back whatever you might hear. Remember, your lives depend upon it.'

'Whatever we might hear?' asked Frodo, starting to suspect what Alanna was about to do.

She nodded and swung herself into the saddle. 'Gentlemen, it's been a pleasure,' she said, looking slightly scared, and cantered off in the direction of the ford.

Aragorn led the hobbits to a hiding place closer to the edge of he trees where they could see the ford without being seen themselves.

Alanna slowed Asfaloth to a walk. As she drew nearer the ford, she grew steadily more alert. A horse snorted faintly in the trees. Alanna tensed.

_So I was right_, she thought. But it did not make her feel any better.

Suddenly, out of the trees on either side of the road, galloped all nine of the Ringwraiths.

Asfaloth reared, wheeled about and galloped off in the opposite direction as fast as he could. Alanna looked back to make sure that all nine were pursuing her.

_I hope you saw that Aragorn,_ she thought.

Aragorn watched Alanna draw the Wraiths away and as soon as they were out of sight, he and the four hobbits bolted from their hiding place and ran for the ford. They splashed across the river and as soon as they were across, they heard the sound they had all been dreading.

The clash of steel on steel and then a long and high-pitched scream came from the direction of the woods, along with an unexplainable howl, and then there was complete silence.

Frodo, having been weakened by their flight, slipped sideways and knew no more.

**A Note From Angela and Opal:**

**Angela: Well everyone that was Chapter One. Please review and let us know if it's any good. Please? Pretty please? Pretty please with an invisible and imaginary homemade cupcake to all reviewers? *begs on hands and knees* Please please please review! Opal! Come and beg with me!**

**Opal: *indignantly* Angela! I am an English lady and English ladies do not **_**beg**_**! And do get up off the floor. We are expecting guests you know and it would not do for them to see you on the floor. They might think you were immature.**

**Angela: Well they'd be right, wouldn't they.**

**Opal: Just get up off the floor.**

**Angela: Oh, by the way, yes, I did base the **_**rethos**_** forms on Animagi. Goodbye now!**

**Opal: Bye!**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two- Rivendell**

Angela: Right-o. We don't own LotR, Alanna and Charlotte are our characters, etc. You know the drill-

Opal: I thought I was doing this disclaimer.

Angela: You did the last one.

Opal: No I didn't! You started complaining about frogs last time.

Angela: I thought that was you.

Opal: No that was you. I remember it well. 'Twas a dark and stormy night-

Angela: Have you been at the chocolate cake again?

Opal: No! Well, yes, but that's not the point!

Alanna: *holding drawn sword* For the last time, would you two comedians kindly shut up and get on with telling the story? We are having a lovely tea party and all that here in Rivendell but we are getting sort of bored with waiting for you two to stop arguing and get typing.

Opal: Again? *faints*

Angela: Again. *randomly tickles Opal till she wakes up*

Opal: *douses Angela with a bucket of water*

(This chapter has two different languages. This is the key and all chapters will follow this key from now on.

Elvish is underlined

Westron is not)

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Frodo awoke in a bed in Rivendell. Sitting beside the bed was the last person he had expected to see. Gandalf the Grey, the wizard who had told Frodo that he had to get to Rivendell in the first place.

Gandalf had promised to meet Frodo and Sam (Merry and Pippin had turned up later) at the Prancing Pony, the pub in Bree where the four hobbits had met Strider. Gandalf hadn't been at the pub when the hobbits arrived and this struck Frodo as curious as Gandalf had never failed to keep a promise.

'How come you didn't meet us at the inn Gandalf?' Frodo asked.

'At some stage I will tell you but to stop you pestering me, I will tell you that I was held captive by someone I counted as an ally,' replied the elderly wizard.

'You!'

'Yes. I am not invincible Frodo, nobody is.'

Frodo was silent while he processed this information.

'How are the others, Gandalf?' the hobbit asked finally.

'Recovering from the shock you gave them I believe.'

'And Alanna?'

'She is perfectly fine, or rather, she will be. She arrived here a few hours ago and the look on Aragorn's face was hilarious. We all thought she was dead when Aragorn told us what had happened. Lord Elrond was furious at her for a while but he is so glad that she's alive that he's quickly forgotten his anger.'

'Do we know what happened to her?'

'Not yet,' came a voice from the door. 'But we will when she wakes up. She's asleep at the moment.'

'Sam!' cried Frodo.

'It's good to see you awake and looking well again, Mr Frodo,' said Sam, happily.

'I'll leave you two to catch up,' said Gandalf, rising from his chair. 'Sam has hardly left your side he was that worried about you.'

Gandalf left and Sam told Frodo everything that had happened since Frodo lost consciousness by the Ford of Bruinen.

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On the evening of that day, a feast was held in Frodo's honour. Strider was there along with Merry, Pippin, Sam and Gandalf. Frodo was glad to see that Alanna was there as well. She appeared to be well, but had a bandage wound about her upper left arm and she appeared to be trying not to move it. She caught Frodo's eye and smiled. At the head of the table sat Lord Elrond, Alanna's father and the lord of Rivendell. Beside Alanna sat another elf woman and two twin male elves. These, Frodo learnt, were Alanna's siblings. Arwen, Alanna's sister, and Elladan and Elrohir, her brothers. Also at the table were many other elves who resided in Rivendell.

After the feast, the party retired to another hall where Frodo discovered that his uncle Bilbo was alive and well and waiting for him in Rivendell. Frodo and Bilbo chatted for a long time. Bilbo wanted to hear news of the Shire, the land of the hobbits, and Frodo wanted to hear of Bilbo's adventures since he left Bag End, the house that Bilbo had left to Frodo. After a while, Alanna came over and she and Bilbo regaled Frodo with tales of the 'dragon incident', as Alanna called it.

After another half an hour, Aragorn came over and told Alanna that there was someone from Mirkwood waiting outside to see her. Alanna's eyes lit up and she bolted to the door. Bilbo and Frodo followed her but Frodo couldn't quite understand why.

The two hobbits exited the hall just in time to see Alanna fly down a set of steps, into the open space just inside the entrance to Rivendell, and throw her arms around the blond elf who was standing there, almost knocking him into a nearby rosebush.

'Calm yourself, woman!' cried the elf, 'There's only one of me and you haven't been in Rivendell for **that** long.'

'Three years, which, in my opinion, is too long, and I've missed you so much,' said Alanna. 'One would think that gives me an excuse.'

'You're right, as usual.'

'Legolas,' Alanna said, half whining. 'You say that like it's a bad thing.'

It was at that moment that Legolas spotted the bandage on Alanna's arm.

'And what, pray tell, have you been up to?' he inquired.

Alanna looked like a child caught stealing cookies on the sly.

'It was for the good of Middle Earth,' she said, defensively. 'And it wasn't anything too dangerous.'

'Allie,' Legolas said warningly.

'It was only the Nazgûl.'

Legolas looked as though he'd seen a ghost.

'Nazgûl!' he spluttered. 'If that's your definition of _not too dangerous_, then I'd hate to see what your definition of dangerous is.'

Alanna thought about it for a moment before saying, 'Sauron? A b-a-l-r-o-g?'

'B-a-l-... Oh!' Legolas said, figuring out what Alanna had said. 'A bal-'

Alanna clamped a hand over his mouth, cutting him off mid-word, and then grabbed his arm and dragged him in the direction of the hall, only stopping briefly so that Legolas could say hello to Bilbo and get introduced to Frodo.

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The next morning, there was a meeting. Lord Elrond was there, as well as Aragorn; Gandalf; Frodo; Bilbo; Legolas; a strange man with red hair; Alanna's brothers, Elladan and Elrohir; many other residents of Rivendell and a few dwarves. There was a spare chair next to Legolas and Frodo couldn't fathom who it was for.

He soon found out. Alanna came storming up the steps to the circle of chairs. At least, Frodo thought it was Alanna. The elf had blonde hair now, was wearing a white dress and she looked like she was in a very, very bad mood. Alanna stopped in front of Elladan and Elrohir, both of whom tried their best to look innocent.

'Well?' Alanna asked, somehow filling the single syllable with menace.

'It'll wash out...' said Elladan.

'In about three weeks,' finished Elrohir. The twins grinned at their baby sister.

'Just because I am over two decades younger than you two doesn't give either of you an excuse to turn my hair blonde,' Alanna snapped.

'We elves can have truly terrible tempers,' Elladan said, trying not to laugh.

'That was an interesting fact about elves,' said Elrohir, failing in trying not to laugh.

'I will have my revenge!' Alanna growled.

'Ooooooh! Someone's in a bad mood,' said Elladan.

'You don't say!' Elrohir said, sarcastically.

'You ain't seen nothing yet,' snarled Alanna. 'You two had better be looking over your shoulders every other step you take because this. Means. War.'

With that, Alanna sat down in the previously unoccupied chair next to Legolas. The twins looked at each other and gulped, each wondering if they had finally gone too far. Lord Elrond gave them both a look that said, _I told you so_.

The strange red haired man looked surprised at seeing Alanna sitting amongst all of the men.

'Surely you are not going to participate in our council,' he said. 'I mean, you are a lady and war is the province of men.'

At the sound of the word 'lady', Legolas, Aragorn, Elladan and Elrohir started frantically making stop-talking-right-now motions at the stranger. He ignored them but quailed under Alanna's withering gaze.

'I do hope, Boromir, son of Denethor, that you are not judging a book by its cover,' Alanna said, scathingly. 'I will have you know that not all ladies are the stay-at-home-and-leave-the-fighting-to-the-men type.' _Like Charlotte_, she added mentally. 'There are some in this world who don't conform with gender-based stereotypes and I am one of them. If it comes to it, I could beat you in a swordfight without breaking sweat. Now, if you are quite finished, we can return to the original purpose of this council which was to decide what in the world is to be done with the One Ring.'

'How do you know my name?' asked Boromir.

'I know everything,' Alanna replied in a haughty tone.

'Strangers from distant lands, friends of old,' began Lord Elrond after Boromir and Alanna wisely decided to shut up. 'You have been summoned here to answer the threat of Mordor. Middle Earth stands upon the brink of destruction. None can escape it. You will unite or you will fall. Each race is bound to this fate, this one doom. Bring forth the Ring, Frodo.'

Frodo nervously stepped forward to a small stone table in the centre of the semi-circle of people. He drew the One Ring from his pocket, placed it on the table, hesitated for a split second and then turned and resolutely walked back to his chair.

'So this is the weapon of the enemy, of the Dark Lord Sauron. This is the One Ring,' said Boromir with wonder.

Gandalf and Elrond glanced meaningfully at each other as Boromir stood up and slowly made his way over to the table. He reached for the Ring but as he did so he felt something cold and sharp press against the side of his neck. Boromir removed his hand and turned to see who was beside him.

To his surprise, Alanna was standing beside him pointing a dagger with a hilt studded with emeralds at his neck. She wordlessly pointed to Boromir's chair and he meekly scurried over and sat down, reevaluating Alanna.

_She's bolder than I thought,_ thought Boromir. _I think she is someone who should not be antagonised. And where did she get that dagger from, I wonder._

'Nice one,' Legolas muttered to Alanna when she sat down. 'But, seriously. You're armed even in Rivendell?'

'I think he and I won't be becoming the best of friends any time soon,' Alanna whispered back as she slipped the dagger back up the sleeve of her dress. 'And you know I'm paranoid.'

'You two will be celebrating your wedding any day now I'm sure,' Legolas muttered to himself.

'When you two are finished, perhaps we can proceed,' Lord Elrond said, an impatient edge to his voice. This ring is indeed the weapon of the enemy-'

'Why should we not use the Ring?' Boromir cut in. 'If you give it to Gondor, we will use it against him.'

'That wouldn't work,' Aragorn said. 'The One Ring has no master save Sauron. Only he can wield it.'

'What would a Ranger know of this matter?' asked Boromir, in a patronising sort of voice.

'He is not only a Ranger,' Legolas put in before Aragorn could answer. 'He is Aragorn, son of Arathorn and the heir to the throne of Gondor.'

'Please stay out of this, Your Highness,' Aragorn pleaded.

Legolas scowled at Aragorn and maturely stuck his tongue out, but acquiesced to his request.

After it became clear that Aragorn and Boromir weren't going to continue, Lord Elrond began again.

'We cannot wield the ring, so therefore we must destroy it.'

'Well then,' one of the dwarves said, reaching for his battleaxe. 'What are we waiting for?'

He strode over to the table raised his axe and brought it smashing down upon the One Ring. At the same time, Legolas cried out, 'No!', but it was too late. The dwarf's axe hit the Ring and was shattered although the Ring itself remained unharmed.

'Excellent, Gimli!' Alanna said. 'You know exactly what we need to do, which is more than can be said for our new village idiot, Boromir. It's just... You might want to find a new method of destroying the Ring seeing as all you got there was a broken axe.'

'The Ring cannot be destroyed by us, Gimli, son of Glóin. It must be taken deep into Mordor and thrown into Mount Doom, the mighty mountain of fire,' Lord Elrond said, ignoring his daughter. 'One of you, must be the one to do this.'

'Father?' Alanna asked is a falsely sweet voice. 'Does it absolutely **have** to be someone **here** who takes the Ring to Mordor? Have you not considered the, rather large, possibility that there might be someone else in Middle Earth who isn't here but is equally qualified to do the job?'

'Well,' said Elrond, stumped. 'I think we have a very good selection here. We've got Legolas...'

'Who will be bound and gagged and sent back to Mirkwood if he so much as thinks about trying to volunteer...'

'You may capture the eagle, but you cannot clip its wings,' Legolas said primly.

Alanna rolled her eyes and signed for her father to continue.

'Well then, we've got you...'

'Who you won't let take the Ring to Mordor...' Alanna rebutted.

'There's Aragorn or Gimli...'

'It's too dangerous for Aragorn and I'm not entirely sure Gimli wants to do it...'

'Ummmm... Gandalf?'

'Still too dangerous...'

'Boromir?'

'Takes the Ring to Mordor over my dead body,' Alanna finished firmly.

'**That** can be arranged,' Boromir growled, just loud enough for Alanna to hear.

Alanna dived at Boromir and might have seriously injured him had Legolas and Aragorn not caught her by the arms and shoved her back into her seat.

'One does not simply walk into Mordor,' said Boromir, after Alanna had calmed down. 'It is a wasteland, full of orcs and worse things. The Great Eye of Sauron is ever watchful. You could not do this if you possessed an army of ten thousand men. It is folly.'

'Haven't you been listening?' asked Legolas incredulously, getting to his feet. 'We have to destroy the Ring else we are all done for.'

'And I suppose you think you're the one to do it, eh?' asked Gimli. 'I would be dead before I see the Ring, in the hands of an elf!'

'Legolas wasn't saying that he was going to take the Ring to Mordor, **I hope**,' Alanna countered, glaring at Legolas, daring him to contradict her. 'He was merely returning to the subject at hand.'

Gimli muttered something along the lines of 'never trust an elf', and this statement set off an argument that included nearly everyone present. After a few minutes, though, Alanna, who had not participated in the argument, had had enough.

'SILENCE!' she roared. Everyone fell silent instantly.

'This bickering is pointless,' she continued in her normal voice. 'While we stand here and bicker amongst ourselves, Sauron is getting stronger. Every day we delay, his army is increasing and he is growing ever impatient to find what was stolen from him. The One Ring. We must appoint this task to someone and we must appoint it swiftly or else, as Legolas puts it, we are all dead. Are there any volunteers? Legolas, you know exactly what will happen if you even **think** about it.'

There was silence as everyone processed Alanna's blunt manner of getting the message across.

At last, Frodo stepped forward.

'I will take the Ring to Mordor, though I do not know the way.'

'I shall help you bear this burden, Frodo Baggins,' said Gandalf moving forward to stand by the hobbit's side.

'You have my sword,' said Aragorn, joining them.

'And my bow,' put in Legolas.

'And my axe,' came Gimli's voice. Legolas rolled his eyes.

'Count me in,' said Alanna.

'I might as well come along. You know, to help protect the lady,' Boromir said, coming across to the small group. He made sure that he wasn't standing anywhere near Alanna whose facial expression was one that probably meant that she would have attempted murder given half a chance.

'Hey!' came a voice from the bushes. Samwise Gamgee came dashing out from the bushes and stood beside Frodo. 'Mr Frodo's not going anywhere without me.'

'Indeed,' commented Legolas, drily. 'It is hardly possible to separate you even when Mr Baggins is invited to a secret council and you aren't.'

Alanna suddenly darted across to the doorway onto the courtyard where they had been meeting and disappeared through it. There was a scuffling sound and Alanna reappeared plus two eavesdropping hobbits, Merry and Pippin.

'We elves have excellent hearing,' commented Elladan.

'That was another interesting fact about elves,' added Elrohir.

'Well lookie here!' Alanna exclaimed, ignoring the twins. 'Two little spies.'

'Can we come, too?' asked Merry. 'We want to go with Frodo and Sam.'

'In any case,' put in Pippin. 'You need people of intelligence on this sort of mission. Quest. Thing.'

'Well that rules you out, Pip,' Merry chuckled.

'Very well,' Lord Elrond said, decisively. 'Ten companions. You shall be the Fellowship of the Ring.'

'Great!' exclaimed Pippin. 'Now, where are we going again?

**A Note From Angela and Opal:**

**Opal: So that was Chapter Two. Please review! Angela and I welcome your opinions of the story! We aren't sure whether suggestions will change the course of the story but suggestions are welcomed! See you all next week in Chapter Three when Alanna...**

**Angela: Opal! Hurry up! We're going to be late for school and our insane friend, Syletah, has a surprise and a joke for you!**

**Opal: If it's the one about the Englishman, the American, the Irishman and the sacks, I've heard it ****(readers, if you absolutely must know the joke then ask me in a review)****. As for the surprise... I'm worried. I'm really worried. Goodbye readers! See you next week… I hope…**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three- Going South**

**An** **A/N from AngelofGrace: Right, I detest long author notes, so let's get this show on the road. Now, there will be a reference to Monty Python in this chapter, more specifically a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Oh, yeah, I nearly forgot the Narnia reference. :) as you can tell, we often use quotes from our favourite movies. Get used to it, or stop complaining). PM me if you can't find it, and we will happily tell you what it is, and probably refer you to the movie as well. Now, on with the disclaimer, and the story. Bye!**

Angela: *walks in half asleep* Hey Opal, why are you awake at 3 in the morning?... Opal?

Opal: *typing frantically at a computer keyboard* Shhh! I'm hacking into the Pentagon!

Angela: I taught you how to do that! Yay!

Gerald: No, I taught you that, Angela, and then you taught it to her.

Opal: *looks up from computer* GERALD! What on earth are you doing in my bedroom at 3 o'clock in the morning?

Gerald: Well, Angie here, was always going on about her stupid disclaimers, and our parents were bored of it, so I entered your dream, in order to make this a disclaimer with me in it!

Opal: Wait, this is a dream?

Gerald: Yep! Now, *turns to readers* Angela and Opal don't own Lord of the Rings, however, they do own Legolas and Gimli.

Angela: NO YOU IDIOT! WE OWN ALANNA AND CHARLOTTE, NOT LEGOLAS AND GIMLI!

Gerald: Oops! Bye!

Angela: Time to wake up Opal!

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About two months later, the Fellowship of the Ring were ready to set out on their quest. They had everything they needed on the pony that the hobbits had brought from Bree and were just waiting for Aragorn and Gandalf to finalise the route with Elrond. There were a few people out to wish them farewell, including Arwen, Elladan and Elrohir. Alanna was pointedly not looking at her sister and Arwen was pointedly not looking at Alanna. Arwen, the eldest, thought that Alanna was far too reckless for her own good and Alanna thought that her sister was very much a stereotypical girl. These differences were shown in their _rethos_ forms. Alanna, obviously, was a wolf, while Arwen was a peacock. Alanna thought it was rather fitting.

Alanna was checking their supplies for the tenth time when Aragorn, Gandalf and Elrond appeared.

'Again, Alanna?' asked Aragorn exasperatedly.

'Again,' the elf replied. 'And you needn't sound so scornful. It wouldn't do for us to be caught short of anything in the middle of nowhere, now would it?'

'Well, you're just paranoid.'

'When did you notice?' asked Legolas.

'When you three are quite finished,' came Gandalf's voice. 'Perhaps we could get going.'

'The sooner you are off,' said Elladan.

'The sooner you can get back,' completed Elrohir.

'Off we go then,' said Gimli cheerily.

Alanna pulled her pack onto her back, ignoring the puzzled look from the non-elves she did so. It had been decided that Alanna should run as a wolf (the others weren't to know that of course, they thought she was an abnormally fast runner) a few miles ahead of the Fellowship when the travelled during the day so that she could act as a scout and warn the others of any unexpected dangers.

Alanna twisted mid-stride and waved goodbye to her father, brothers and sister, well aware that it could be the last time she ever saw them.

She resolutely turned around again but not before seeing Arwen give Aragorn a goodbye kiss on the cheek.

_Hmmm_, thought Alanna. _Interesting... Very interesting._

Before Alanna could decide whether this was a good development or a bad one, Gandalf nodded at her, and she jogged off, turning around the nearest corner to change, intensely grateful her pack had changed with her. She loped off into the distance.

'Wonderful girl,' commented Boromir. 'Either I'm going to kill her or I'm beginning to like her.'

'I wouldn't kill her,' Aragorn muttered just loud enough for Boromir to hear. 'Someone else would probably kill you if you did.'

'Who?' asked Boromir curiously.

Aragorn glanced meaningfully at Legolas who, thankfully, was preoccupied with checking the map that Gandalf had decided to bring along.

'Overprotective much,' Boromir muttered.

While the men were talking, the others checked and double checked their weapons and the straps on the saddle of the pack pony. Only when Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli and the hobbits were assembled, was it noticed that Aragorn and Boromir were still chatting.

'Come on humans,' called Legolas. 'While we're still young.'

'If that elf keeps telling us to hurry up, I'll get Gandalf to turn him into a big, fluffy cat,' Boromir said, darkly.

About five more minutes passed before the Fellowship, minus one, could actually leave, as the two men **insisted** on going through the supplies one more time. When they were done, Frodo led them out of Rivendell and followed in Alanna's pawprints.

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Over the next few days, a routine was established. Every evening, the Fellowship would wake up, eat and then set off for a night of traveling. After they ate, Alanna would run out and always stay a few miles ahead of them during the night. Every morning, the Fellowship would stop traveling, assign watches for the day and wait for Alanna to return before eating and then those who weren't on watch went to sleep.

This went on for about three weeks until one day the Fellowship of the Ring stopped on a rocky hillside. Merry and Pippin were having swordfighting lessons from Boromir and Aragorn while Frodo and Sam looked on. Legolas with his sharp eyes was keeping a lookout while Gandalf and Gimli were sitting about and Gandalf was smoking his pipe.

'If anyone was to ask me for my opinion, which I note they're not,' Gimli grumbled. 'I would say that we were taking the long way around these confounded mountains. We could go through the Mines of Moria."

"No, Gimli,' Gandalf said, sounding ever so slightly afraid. 'I would not take the road through Moria unless I had no other choice.'

Suddenly, Legolas paled.

'HIDE!' he yelled.

Everyone looked up at him and followed his gaze to where a wolf was now running at full speed towards them. What appeared to be a wisp of cloud had appeared on the horizon. It was moving towards them at an incredible pace and it wasn't moving with the wind.

Now everyone obeyed Legolas without question. Sam put out their cooking fire and everyone was grabbing packs and finding a place to hide. Frodo and Merry dragged the pack pony, a beast which Sam had christened Bill, into some bushes that were dense enough to hide the three of them.

Soon after they were all hidden, the wolf came flying through the camp. It continued North for about a bit while a tremendous cawing resounded through the Fellowship's camp. The flock of crows, for that was what they were, circled the camp twice before taking off South again.

Five minutes after the crows left, the Fellowship emerged from their hiding places.

'Spies of Saruman,' said Gandalf. 'I thought he was our ally until he held me prisoner.'

'Then the way south is being watched,' came a voice behind them.

Everyone turned and saw Alanna walk up, panting heavily.

'Where'd you spring from?' asked Aragorn. 'I thought you were ahead of us.'

'I hope none of you are too sensitive to cold because it looks like we shall have to take the Pass of Caradhras,' Alanna continued, choosing to ignore both Aragorn's question and Legolas's glare.

Everyone followed her gaze towards the mountain that overshadowed their camp.

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Gandalf led the way up the mountain. The way was covered with snow and more often than not, someone got stuck in one of the deeper snowdrifts and had to be pulled out. It was a slow and arduous process and after only two hours, almost everyone was saturated and chilled to the bone.

They had decided to press on during the day, as it was far too dangerous to go climbing up snowy mountains at night, but by the time the afternoon arrived, they had covered only a short distance and it did not look as if they could get much further as a blizzard had sprung up and the small group were stuck at the base of a cliff, unable to go on and unable to go back.

The only person who wasn't cold, or wasn't showing it, was Legolas. Much to the annoyance of the others, Legolas did not show any signs of being freezing and was undoubtedly the most cheerful of the lot of them.

Legolas was standing on top of a snow drift almost but not quite out of earshot of Alanna.

'He's freezing,' Alanna told Aragorn and Boromir. 'He just won't admit it.'

'I heard that,' came Legolas's voice over the wind. 'I am **not** cold.'

'You're not fooling anyone.'

'I feel fine.'

'He says he's not cold,' Aragorn said through chattering teeth.

'Well, he will be soon,' said Alanna grumpily (the cold weather coupled with the blizzard made her irritable). 'It's so cold here.'

'As I said before, I am **not** cold!' came Legolas's indignant reply.

'You'll be bloody freezing in a minute.'

With that, Alanna bent down, picked something up and threw it in Legolas's direction. Her aim was true and even with his fast reflexes, Legolas did not get out of the way in time. The snowball hit him on the shoulder.

Legolas grinned and lobbed one back at Alanna. She ducked and it hit Aragorn instead. Very soon, Boromir got dragged into the fight as well and after about ten minutes, the four of them were tired out, even more saturated than they had been before the fight and Legolas was finally shivering like the rest of them.

'If I told you that I'd hate to say "I told you so" I would be lying,' Alanna grinned.

'Oh, shut up,' Legolas said, shivering.

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The snowstorm did not abate until the next morning. During the night, the hobbits almost got buried under a pile of snow and there was much debate as to the route they should take from that point onwards.

When dawn finally broke, Aragorn said, 'The time has come for us to decide the route. Do we go onwards in the hope that we won't get caught out in another storm, or do we go back and go through the Mines of Moria.'

'I for one have no wish to go through the Mines of Moria,' said Legolas. 'All my life, my father has warned me, and Alanna too, never to go there and it wasn't until I turned twenty that he told me why. There is a... Well, something that I don't think any of us would particularly want to encounter when you're underground and there's an entire mountain on top of you.'

'Remind me?' Alanna asked.

'B-a-l-r-o-g.'

'Oh!'

'Yes. One of those.'

'Returning to discussion of the route,' Boromir interrupted.

'If we're taking a vote, I'm with him,' Alanna said, gesturing towards Legolas.

There was much more argument. Both elves were adamant in their decisions and Boromir, for once, sided with them. The others, save Gandalf and Aragorn, were keen to get out of the snow and into some shelter and warm, dry clothes. In the end Gandalf brought the argument to a close.

'I think we should let the Ring-Bearer decide,' he said. 'Frodo?'

Frodo was silent for a minute.

'We will go through the Mines,' he said finally.

'So be it,' Gandalf said.

Alanna and Legolas went as white as the snow around them.

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Soon after that , the Fellowship descended from the mountain. They were wet through from melted snow, exhausted and freezing cold, but they were alive. Most of the Fellowship were glad to be free of the mountain, but both Alanna and Legolas looked as though they were walking to their execution.

**A Note From Angela and Opal:**

**Opal: Yes, I love snowball fights. To me it seems like the sort of thing that Alanna would do. So now, we move on to Chapter Four when they all go into Moria.**

**Angela: Will Charlotte make an appearance anytime soon? I want to see how the Fellowship react to her.**

**Opal: Maybe. I haven't thought about it yet.**

**Angela: I hate your cliffhangers.**

**Opal: Why do you think I write them? Mind you, this one isn't **_**really**_** a proper cliffhanger. I can do much better ones than this. But**** anyway, I want to know if anyone spotted the references to Monty Python And The Holy Grail, The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and Star Wars: A New Hope (the fourth one out of the six). Please tell me in a review if you found them!**

**Angela: What was the Star Wars one again?**

**Opal: I'll tell you later, now hush. Oh, and if we get five or more reviews asking us to, we'll post twice a week (Tuesdays and Fridays) instead of just on Fridays.**

**Angela: Because its just as hard for us to wait to post it!**

**Opal: Shh.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4- Moria**

Angela: *running around the room* I LOVE SUGAR! I LOVE SUGAR!

enter Opal carrying laptop

Opal: *sighs* You had sugar. Didn't you.

Angela: You bet! I LOVE SUGAR!

Opal: I'd better finish this disclaimer while I still can. *turns to readers* Angela and I don't own Lord of the Rings, only Alanna and Charlotte...

Random Reader: Behind you!

Opal: *turns and sees crazed Angela running towards her* HELP ME!

Angela: *yells while chasing Opal around the house* I am the Big Bad Wolf! FEAR ME!

Opal: *temporarily loses Angela and runs to her bedroom. Types in passcode on DNA encoded keypad. Door opens. Rushes inside, slams door, throws bolt and locks seven different padlocks. Leans against door (facing door), panting*

Legolas: Right, when Opal comes in you grab her legs and I'll grab her arms and we both drag her into the portal, got it?

Alanna: Got it.

Opal: *turns around* What are you two doing in my bedroom? *backs into corner*

Legolas: We aren't happy with the way this story is going. We are here to, erm, "convince" you to change a few things...

Alanna: By taking you with us to Mordor.

Opal: ANGELA! HELP!

Angela: *rattles door* What's going on Opal?

Opal: *screams as she is dragged towards a portal through which one can see Moria* I'm being kidnapped by Legolas and Alanna!

Angela: Sugar Powers, ACTIVATE! *breaks down door. Bursts into room in time to see Opal disappear through the portal. Portal disappears* OPAL! No! This story can't continue without her!... I wonder if Opal took her modem... She had her laptop with her, but did she have the modem plugged in? Yes! She did! She has Internet in Middle Earth! And now she can witness the story first hand!

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The Fellowship of the Ring looked up at what Gimli called the 'Walls of Moria'. In reality, it was basically a very large cliff with no handholds, or any sign of a door in it, and with a very large and deep pool at its base.

'So,' said Legolas shortly. 'Seeing as you are the expert, what do we do now, Gimli?

'Dwarf doors are invisible when closed,' the dwarf answered, somehow missing the fact that Legolas was very, very close to losing the plot. 'So now we look for some doors.'

'Genius. Pure genius,' said Legolas sarcastically.

'Well,' Alanna said, thoughtfully. 'Taking into account the fact that Moria was designed to be as impressive as possible, if it was me designing Moria, I would have those two trees over there on either side of the door.'

Despite Alanna's wise words, everyone else, except Legolas who was probably the only person who actually listened to Alanna's advice on a regular basis, was searching the walls everywhere **but** between the two big and impressive trees.

'Oh they are impossible,' Alanna growled to herself.

She stalked over to the trees and scrutinised the space between them. It was a large space, easily big enough for a pair of very big and impressive doors, but there appeared to be nothing there. Legolas appeared at Alanna's shoulder.

'You know why they don't listen to you don't you?' he asked her quietly.

'It's because I'm a girl and girls aren't supposed to be smart or do any of the things that boys do, isn't it,' came the reply.

'I think that before this trip is over, they will all be very glad that you came with us,' Legolas said. This was his way of acknowledging that Alanna was right.

'You really think so?'

'You know I do.'

Alanna leaned against the wall and sighed.

'I'm not too sure about that but I really hope that you're right.'

'Hang on a minute,' Legolas said, frowning slightly. 'There's something here.'

Legolas ran a hand over the wall behind Alanna's left shoulder.

'Gandalf,' he called. 'I think Alanna was right. There's something here.'

Everyone came running over. Gandalf muttered a few strange words and the faint lines that Legolas had seen glowed silver in the light of the full moon. The lines outlined a door with elvish writing curving over the arch of the door.

'Well, would you look at that. All this time we were looking in the wrong place!' the wizard chuckled.

'And, of course, no credit is given to the person who first put forth the idea of looking there, is it,' Alanna muttered.

'You'll get your chance,' Legolas replied. 'Just have patience.'

'What does the writing say?' asked Pippin to the group at large.

' "The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter",' translated Gandalf.

'Well what does that mean?' asked Merry.

'Well if you are a friend, then you speak the password and the doors will open,' said Gimli.

'_Annon edhellen, edro hi ammen!_' cried Gandalf.

The doors remained firmly closed. Alanna sighed.

'Isn't it painfully obvious?' she asked. 'It's-'

'No no no,' Gandalf said. 'I can do this myself. I don't need help.'

'Fine. Be that way. We'll just sit here waiting for you to kick yourself when you work out the ridiculously obvious answer.'

Gandalf ignored her and continued to try to find the opening words.

Alanna looked at Legolas and rolled her eyes.

**Some time (four hours, ten minutes and twenty-three seconds) later...**

Aragorn, Boromir, Frodo and Sam were removing the remaining supplies from the pack pony as they could not take the beast into the Mines with them, Gandalf was still trying to find the opening words, Gimli was sitting on a log, Pippin was throwing rocks into the pool while Merry watched and Legolas was trying to stop Alanna from fuming to no avail.

'Why don't you just say the word?' asked Legolas.

'If he wants to be stubborn and ignore me then he can be stubborn and ignore me. I won't help him,' said Alanna, stiffly.

'Oh, it's useless,' Gandalf said at that moment. He left the door and sat down beside Gimli on the log.

Aragorn noticed what Pippin was doing and moved to stop him. The ripples caused by the stones were coming closer and closer to the shore.

'I've got a very bad feeling about that,' said Boromir quietly.

'I'm surrounded by idiots,' muttered Alanna to herself. In a louder voice, she asked innocently, 'Why don't you try '_mellon_'?'

To everyone's surprise, the doors grated open.

'Why didn't you tell us before?' asked Aragorn exasperatedly. 'You knew it all along while we've been sitting here freezing our toes off...'

'I'm not cold,' Legolas chirped.

'Yes you are,' Alanna said to him.

'Oh don't start that again.'

'You started it.'

'Now, now, children,' said Aragorn. 'Let's not fight.'

'Don't you patronise me, Aragorn,' Legolas growled. 'I'm older than you and you know it.'

Suddenly, out of the water, emerged a giant octopus-like beast. It's tentacles shot out before the Fellowship could retreat into the mines, and grabbed Frodo by the ankle. Boromir, Aragorn and Gimli hacked at the tentacles holding Frodo and they seemed to retreat. Then all of the monster's tentacles came flying back out of the water and attacked the Fellowship.

One of the tentacles hit Alanna in the chest, throwing her inside the Mines, but no one saw. The rest of the Fellowship swung their weapons at the tentacles and Legolas shot the monster through the eye. It let go of Frodo who was caught by Boromir.

'Into the Mines!' yelled Gandalf.

Everyone ran into the Mines. The monster, vexed by the fact that it could now not get at the Fellowship, pulled the doors down, completely destroying the doorway. It was pitch black and there was now no way out of the mines that way.

'Are we all here?' panted Aragorn. 'Everyone say your names. Aragorn.'

'Boromir.'

'Gimli.'

'Frodo.'

'Sam.'

'Merry.'

'Pippin.'

'Gandalf.'

'Legolas.'

After Legolas, there was silence.

'Alanna?' Aragorn called.

A muffled 'mmpff!' noise came from somewhere near the ceiling. Gandalf lit up the end of his staff and everyone looked around. Alanna was dangling upside down from the ceiling. Her left ankle had caught between two pieces of the ornate ceiling carvings and now she was stuck. Her cloak had also twisted around so that it covered her mouth which was the reason she hadn't said her name.

'How did you get up there? asked Aragorn.

'Mmpff!' Alanna said again but then yanked her cloak away from her mouth. 'I always said that you were driving me up the wall and now you have done it,' she answered.

Legolas, Boromir and Gimli sniggered. Barely a day had gone by on their journey that Aragorn and Alanna hadn't argued about something. The weather, Alanna, the route, Alanna, whether or not Saruman really was a traitor, Alanna, what Sauron would throw at them when he launched his war, Alanna and Alanna were just some of their choice topics for debate. The arguing was good-natured but Alanna and Aragorn always found something to disagree on.

'Well, I'm glad that you aren't still out there fighting th-'

'Help!' Alanna interrupted. 'I'm slipping!'

Her ankle slipped out of the crevice it was caught in and she fell and, to the surprise of everyone, except Legolas, she twisted, blurred and changed into a tiny tortoiseshell cat, just in time to land on all four paws on the ground. She turned her head, smirked at the flabbergasted Fellowship (if cats can smirk), and leapt into a shadow. Legolas jumped and cursed when she materialised on his shoulder. She purred before leaping into the air and changing at just the right height to land on her elvish feet.

'Tada!' she commented, hugely enjoying Boromir and Aragorn's faces in particular.

Legolas rolled his eyes.

'Always a chance to show off, eh?' he asked her rhetorically.

She smiled smugly.

'You do it too,' she pointed out.

Boromir finally regained his senses.

'Who...what...where...you were a cat!' he finally managed.

Alanna rolled her eyes.

'Oh bravo Boromir, I'm glad you have eyes. Yes, I was a cat,' she said exasperatedly.

'But how? And why didn't we know of this power earlier?' Aragorn asked.

This time it was Legolas who answered.

'It's an elvish secret, so you should all feel very honoured that you got to know about it.'

He tossed a frown in Alanna's direction. She scowled at him.

'What? You change every chance you get so you can't exactly tell me off for it, Legolas!'

He rolled his eyes.

'Now that Alanna has decided to stop showing off,' he said, 'can we keep moving?'

Gandalf took the lead, with Legolas and Alanna falling behind the rear.

'Oh, bathwater,' said Legolas. 'I've only just remembered something that I ought to have remembered before we left.'

'What?' asked Alanna.

'One word: Charlotte.'

'Oh vanilla cupcakes. You might have remained me of this before!'

'You ought to have remembered! She's your problem. Well, she drives me insane but she's mostly your problem.'

'If you really want to annoy her, call her Charlie. It'll drive her as mad as she drives you.'

'Do me a favour, and please, please, please don't get yourself knocked out.'

Alanna nodded her head at Legolas, and the group walked in silence for some time.

**Some time (two hours, fifty-eight minutes and ten seconds) later...**

Gandalf called the Fellowship to a halt. They had arrived at a place where four passageways met. One of them was the one the Fellowship were in but there were three others that were unexplored. One went to the right and up, one went straight on and was level and the other went to the left and down.

'I have no memory of this place,' said Gandalf, puzzled.

'Do you want me to go scout?' Alanna asked, coming up behind the Istari. 'With my shadow travelling, I can explore the tunnels quickly and easily.'

'Very well,' the wizard decreed. 'Alanna shall go scout while we stay here.'

'Allie, no!' Legolas whispered, grabbing her arm as she prepared to change. 'We can't get separated! What if you get lost, or run into a b-a-l-r-o-g or something?'

'Fine,' she huffed and sat back down.

Gandalf sat down on a rock to think while the rest of the Fellowship retreated some distance away to give him some peace.

'Are we lost?' whispered Pippin.

'Shhhhhh,' hissed Merry. 'Gandalf's thinking.'

'I'm hungry.'

'Now there's a surprise,' said Legolas quietly.

'He's not the only one. What time is it?' asked Alanna.

'About five minutes after you last asked me and I can tell you that my answer has not changed. I have no idea.'

Alanna suddenly stiffened. She sat perfectly still, as if listening to something. There was complete silence.

'What is it?' whispered Sam.

'Shh!' shushed Legolas. 'I can hear something too.'

Both elves scrambled over to look down the steep stairway the had climbed to get to their current position. There, climbing up the stairs was a small figure. It had long arms and legs and moved with a spider-like agility.

'Gandalf?' asked Alanna, nervously. 'What exactly **is** that?'

'Gollum,' came the reply. 'He has been following us since we entered the Mines. He hates and loves the Ring, as he hates and loves himself.'

'Should we be worried?'

'I don't think he'll attack while all ten of us are awake, but I think we should rest here for the night, or at least we should get some sleep, and instead of only one person on watch, we will watch in pairs. I wouldn't put it past him not to sneak up behind the person on guard, throttle him and-'

'Or her.'

-**or her** and take the Ring back. We must be cautious.'

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Gollum tried nothing that night. Legolas and Aragorn took first watch, followed by Merry and Sam and then Frodo and Gandalf. All any of them saw of Gollum was a pair of pale eyes that disappeared and reappeared in a very disconcerting manner throughout the night (or whatever time period it happened to be).

Gandalf woke them all when he saw fit and announced that, while he had not remembered the right way, the air down the left hand passage did not smell as bad and that was they way they ought to go.

'If you'd let me go look,' Alanna muttered to Legolas, 'I could have told you that by now.'

'Oh shut up,' Legolas shot back eloquently.

The Fellowship of the Ring descended the seemingly endless stairs until they came to a space where the walls on either side of the passage simply disappeared. Sunlight from specially carved skylights in the roof of the enormous cavern they had entered flooded the room. The cavern was massive. To the Fellowship, it seemed to take up most of the top of the mountain under which it resided.

'Are you sure this was a mine, Gimli?' asked Pippin.

'Yes, why?' answered the dwarf.

'Because it doesn't seem like a mine so much as an entire city!' replied the awed hobbit.

Gimli suddenly gave a shout and dashed off to a room at the side of the hall. Inside it was a marble tomb, lots of dwarf skeletons and evidence of orcs everywhere.

' "Here lies Balin, son of Fundin. Lord of Moria",' Alanna translated from the runes written on the marble tomb. 'So he is dead then. Shame. I think he was the nicest of all of Thorin's Company. Wouldn't you agree, Legolas?'

Balin was one of the dwarves that had accompanied Thorin Oakensheild and Bilbo Baggins to the Lonely Mountain to raid the treasure hoard of the dragon, Smaug the Magnificent. Balin had been Gimli's cousin and one of the few dwarves in Thorin's company who had paid attention to Alanna and Legolas.

'Mm-hm,' agreed Legolas. 'I didn't know you could read runes.'

'You learn something new every day, don't you.'

Before this could turn into an argument, Gandalf stooped and picked up an old and dusty book from the floor. He began to read. The book detailed the presence of orcs in Moria and how the dwarves had thought that they had defeated them and how the orcs had sneaked up on the dwarves and trapped them all into one hall.

' "They are coming",' Gandalf read the last words on the last page.

As he said this, Pippin, ever the curious hobbit had gone over to the well that stood in a corner of the room and had accidentally knocked something down it. The whatever-it-was made a horrible clanking and clattering sound as it fell.

'Fool of a Took,' Gandalf growled. 'Why don't you throw yourself in next time and we can be rid of your stupidity.'

As he said this, Alanna and Legolas both swallowed and looked at the well. Soon everyone else heard what they had heard. The sound of drums echoed up from the well and all over the Mines.

If the drums were bad, the next thing that everyone heard was worse. The screeches of orcs, magnified by the echoes, coming closer and closer. Boromir ran to the door and looked out. Two arrows thudded into the door beside his head in quick succession. Legolas and Aragorn ran to help him shut the door and wedge it with weapons reclaimed from the skeletons.

A roar rose above the voices of the orcs.

'They have a cave troll!' cried Alanna.

'Get back!' Legolas urged her. 'And stay out of the fighting as much as possible.'

Alanna rolled her eyes at him, but a few seconds later, a cat streaked into a shadowed corner. After that, Legolas had no time to dwell on her lack of argument, because the orcs started beating on the door. When they had made a sizeable hole in it, Legolas and Aragorn fired arrows through the hole.

The orcs eventually crashed through the door and began attacking the Fellowship. Aragorn tripped on a rock on the floor and would have been killed by an orc had not a red fletched arrow mysteriously appeared in the neck of the orc in question. Aragorn looked sideways and saw Alanna completely ignoring Legolas's instructions, and standing on a shadowed ledge, shooting orc after orc. Aragorn shook his head.

_She'll get herself into trouble_, Aragorn thought. _No doubt about that. Although, that shadow travel, or whatever it is she does, is very useful indeed._

Alanna eventually abandoned her bow and drew her sword, leaping down into the fight. She was not afraid of the orcs, she had faced a dragon and lived to tell the tale after all, but then the cave troll crashed through the doorway.

It was about three times the height of a fully grown man and about four times as broad. However, for all its bulk, the troll was not an intelligent creature and ended up harming the orcs more than it harmed the Fellowship.

Eventually, all of the orcs were killed and the troll was the only problem left. It went after each member of the Fellowship for about half a minute before switching to another until it decided to go after Alanna.

Alanna managed to evade the troll for quite a long time, despite the fact that it had acquired a spear, but in the end it managed to back Alanna into a corner. Everyone else realised her predicament seconds too late. Legolas fired three arrows at the troll's neck and didn't miss his target but he was too late.

The troll jabbed his spear at Alanna. She ducked but the troll caught her on the side of the head with the shaft of the spear. Alanna slid down the wall and lay still. The troll thinking she was dead, roared its triumph and then lumbered off to chase Frodo.

_Uh-oh!_ thought Legolas. _Now we're in trouble._

**Five minutes later...**

The troll was now dead, killed by Legolas shooting it through the throat. It had managed to stab Frodo, who had appeared to be dead, but he was perfectly fine because had had been wearing a coat of mail made from _mithril_ that had been given to him by Bilbo Baggins in Rivendell. Now the Fellowship turned their attention to Alanna.

She was still unconscious and for a horrible moment, everyone thought that the troll might have mortally wounded her, but then her eyes flickered open and she sat up. Legolas dived forward before she could speak and clamped a hand over her mouth. Gandalf frowned at this.

'I think the word "strawberries" would be appropriate here,' muttered Legolas.

Alanna yanked Legolas's hand off her mouth.

'Oh it is good to be out of there,' she stated, happily. 'Honestly, all she ever thinks about is you, adventures and you again, your Highness. She is **such**-'

'Charlotte,' Legolas interrupted. 'Shut. Up. You have no idea of the danger we are in. We have to get out of here **now** because we will soon have all the orcs in Moria snapping at our heels.'

'Orcs!' shrieked the elf that Legolas had addressed as Charlotte, leaping to her feet. 'Well then we must get out of here at once!'

'Ermmmmm...' said Aragorn and Boromir simultaneously.

'What in the world is going on here?' asked Gimli.

'The long and short of it?' Legolas said, making sure that Charlotte couldn't hear. 'Alanna's injuries during the 'dragon incident' caused her to get Multiple Personality Disorder. This is Charlotte, Alanna's other personality, and the two couldn't be more different.'

'I see,' said Gandalf.

There were screechings echoing outside in the big hall.

'Can we go now?' asked Charlotte nervously.

Legolas rolled his eyes, but addressed her quietly, 'Why don't you change into a cat and I'll carry you out?'

She smiled gratefully, but before she had time to change, Gandalf called for them to hurry.

He led the way out of the room they were currently in and the Fellowship of the Ring ran for their lives through the massive hall they had just left. Halfway towards the door they were aiming for, they became surrounded by orcs. Everyone was just giving up hope when the orcs suddenly screeched with fear and ran away.

A red glow appeared near the other end of the hall. There was growling sound and grating footsteps.

'Is that what I think it is?' asked Legolas.

His voice was so laden with fear, bordering on panic, that it made everyone want to run back to Rivendell and hide under their beds.

'That depends,' said Gandalf. 'If you think it's a cow then no it is not what you think it is. However, if you think it's a Balrog then you are completely and 100% correct.'

'Now is not the time for jokes, Gandalf.'

'This is a foe beyond any of you.'

'If it thought I could defeat it I wouldn't be standing here, would I. I would be taking after Alanna and yelling "Charge!" and running off to fight it. As it so happens all I want to do is get out of here so can we please retreat/regroup/run away/whatever-you-want-to-call-it, before it comes any closer?'

Legolas was simultaneously scared out of his wits and very close to losing his temper with Gandalf. The footsteps came closer and closer, the glow at the end of the hall became brighter and brighter and Legolas became increasingly agitated before Gandalf finally gave the order to retreat.

While Legolas was ranting at Gandalf, Charlotte was growing ever paler, hyperventilating and seemed very close to fainting. When Gandalf gave the order to run and the others took off, Charlotte didn't move. Seeing this, Legolas and Aragorn both dashed back each took one of her arms and half dragged, half carried her to the door. Once they were through the door, Charlotte finally snapped out of her daze and ran with the rest of them.

The Fellowship reached the bottom of the stairs and ran across an incredibly thin bridge with no handrails and a fall down an endless black chasm awaiting any who fell off. Gandalf was the last across but stopped halfway across the bridge. The rest of the Fellowship looked back and Legolas and Charlotte both almost fainted with fright.

A monstrous flaming demon, somewhat like a cross between a Minotaur and a dragon, stood on the other side of the bridge. It held a flaming whip in one hand and a flaming sword in the other.

'You cannot pass!' yelled Gandalf.

'Gandalf!' cried Frodo.

The Balrog tried and tried to get past Gandalf but it couldn't harm the elderly wizard. After a lot of yelling on Gandalf's part, a lot of roaring on the part of the Balrog and a fair few shrieks on Charlotte's part, Gandalf yelled, 'You! Shall not! Pass!' and slammed his staff into the bridge.

The Balrog set one foot on the bridge and it broke. The Balrog fell but, at the last minute, it cracked its whip. The thongs of the whip curled around Gandalf's knees and dragged him into the chasm.

'Fly, you fools!' he cried. And then he was gone.

Boromir had to carry Frodo away and Aragorn and Legolas had to drag Charlotte again as she remained rooted to the spot. The remaining members of the Fellowship ran up some stairs and out into the light of day.

Sam, Merry and Pippin all sat down on the rocky hillside they had emerged from. Legolas was white and shaking but Charlotte was the worst affected of the lot. She swayed on the spot and then collapsed into Legolas's arms.

**Inside Alanna's head, just when Charlotte wakes up...**

Alanna found herself back inside her virtual bedroom.

_Not again_, she thought. _Aragorn already thinks I'm crazy but this is just going to increase his firm belief of that matter_.

Alanna was forced to watch and listen as Charlotte babbled on about Alanna only thinking about adventures and Legolas and being such a tomboy and other matters.

_She will obliterate my friendship with Legolas_, Alanna thought sadly.

She smiled as Legolas offered to help Charlotte, but frowned when she wasn't able to take the offer.

Alanna watched as Charlotte proved to be a complete coward as the Fellowship ran out into the hall. Then the Balrog came, the orcs ran away and Alanna was very confused as to why the Fellowship didn't run away immediately. Gandalf even attempted to be funny. Needless to say, this did not go down well with Legolas.

_I'm rubbing off on him_, thought Alanna with a touch of pride._ Even as he is rubbing off on me_.

When Gandalf gave the order to run however, Charlotte remained where she was.

'RUN!' yelled Alanna, feeling downright ridiculous as she yelled at thin air. 'Run, you idiot Charlotte or you'll be killed!'

Charlotte did not listen and Alanna witnessed Legolas and Aragorn drag her away. The Fellowship were running for their lives but most of it all passed in a whirlwind of fear for Alanna.

Then the Balrog appeared before them. Seeing the monster of her nightmares in the flesh was too much for Alanna. All she managed to register after the appearance of the Balrog was Gandalf falling off the bridge and the Fellowship running outside into the light. Then everything went black for Alanna as Charlotte fainted.

**Just outside Moria, now...**

'Never...again,' panted Legolas. 'I can see why my father warned me against Moria and Balrogs in general.'

'We should get going,' Aragorn said after a last look at Moria. 'By nightfall, these hills will be swarming with orcs. We have to get to Lothlórien. Legolas, are you alright to carry Ala… er… Charlotte?'

Legolas nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Aragorn assumed the role of leader and got everyone up from where they had been mourning the loss of Gandalf. Legolas picked up Charlotte and the group moved off towards Lothlórien, the first safe haven since Rivendell and possibly the last until the journey's end.

**A Note From Angela and Opal:**

**Opal: So Charlotte has made an appearance now (the first of many in the company of the Fellowship), Alanna has revealed one of her forms, and Gandalf has gone.**

**Angela: You're being very precise with the times here.**

**Opal: Your point being? Anyways, what will happen next is anyone's guess.**

**Angela: Ummm… They'll all go to into that big forest with the elves in it and...um...do...something... I don't know what.**

**Opal: So specific. 'That big forest with the elves in it'. Which big forest with the elves in it?**

**Angela: Is there more than one big forest?**

**Opal: *facepalms* Yes of course there is... Look never mind. Just... Go and read **_**Lord Of The Rings**_** and **_**The Hobbit**_** again, why don't you. Now I will say goodbye and please review! Oh, and I have no idea how wifi works. If I got it wrong (which I probably did), please **_**don't**_** try and explain it to me. Until next week, **_**sayonara**_**!**


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five- Lothlórien**

Opal: *on a webcam call to Angela* Alanna and Legolas really weren't happy with me about having them all go into Moria but I asked them if they were just being scaredy cats and said that I would go in just to prove that I am braver than two elves.

Angela: And what did they do?

Opal: Alanna said that she was game if I was. Legolas wasn't to happy about that but in the end I made him see it my way and he did it. He, unknowingly mind you, quoted Captain Barbossa. "I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request".

Angela: He said that?

Opal: *nods*

Angela: Your powers of persuasion amaze me.

Opal: I know. This is off topic but I have really weird Internet here. It flickers on and off. How are my parents? Oh gosh! They must be worried about me!

Angela: It's alright. Don't panic. Your parents and mine have gone on a holiday at short notice. You're supposed to be staying at my house for the week while they're away. Gerald is here too but I threatened that Alanna would come and pay him a visit if he told anyone where you really were and he's kept his silence.

Opal: Phew. I'm surprised that our parents trust us to be alone in the house for a week. Neither of us would get any sleep and the house might have been non existent when they returned if I really was there. As such...

Angela: You aren't. I'm glad you called in time for this disclaimer. It would have been very boring without you.

Legolas: *off to the side somewhere* How in Middle-Earth does this thing work? Angela is in a different world and yet she speaks to you on this strange object as if you were face to face.

Opal: *to Legolas* No no no! Don't press that! That's the brightness button and I need to keep this on minimum brightness to conserve the battery. This is how I can send updates of the story to Angela so if you run the battery out, then the story can't progress until you take me back see? Look, I'm not going to explain the whys and wherefores of a laptop to you. All you need to know is not to touch it, alright?

Angela: *hopefully* You're quite sure we don't own Lord of the Rings?

Opal: For the last time, Angela. We. Don't. Own. Lord. Of. The. Rings. Only Alanna and Charlotte, who should be waking up any minute now.

Angela: Oh well, I'd better go. It's four o clock in the morning here.

Opal: WHAT!

Angela: Yep.

Opal: Oh, well. Better go. Charlotte will be waking up soon. Story to follow shortly. Bye! And don't eat any sugar!

Angela: Bye!

Opal: *to Legolas* No! Don't touch that! That's the power button! *computer screen goes black* *yells* LEGOLAS! I WILL KILL YOU! I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU DID, BUT I WILL STILL KILL YOU!

_oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO o_

Charlotte regained consciousness just after the Fellowship entered Lothlórien. They were taking a break as they had been travelling non-stop since Moria.

'It's about time you woke up,' said Legolas.

'Where are we?' asked Charlotte as she sat up.

'Lothlórien,' said Aragorn. 'We only just arrived here. We'll continue once we've had a break and reach Caras Galadhon late tomorrow.'

Charlotte nodded.

**Half an hour later...**

The Fellowship of the Ring were travelling again. Charlotte was complaining about Alanna again, and had been almost non-stop. The rest if the Fellowship were studiously ignoring her.

'Is she always like this?' Boromir asked Legolas.

'She's worse than she was the first time I met her,' muttered Legolas. 'The first time I met her, which is also the only time I've met her, she complained and complained but she didn't rant on about it like she is now. She's the opposite of Alanna. You know Alanna, she acts more like a boy than a girl, but Charlotte is a different story. Girly, obsessed with her hair and clothes, et cetera. Any minute now, she'll start saying that it isn't proper for a lady to carry weapons.'

Charlotte's voice floated back to them.

'Alanna just doesn't observe the unspoken rules for ladies. She knows that it isn't proper for a lady to carry weapons, much less know how to use them, and yet she insists on doing it anyway. Moreover, she always insists on wearing boy's clothes, the nerve of her! I mean-'

'What did I tell you?' Legolas said to Boromir.

'Could you please knock her out soon? This Charlotte person is right that it isn't proper for a lady to carry weapons but I think I prefer Alanna. I never thought I'd hear myself say that but at least she's useful.'

'Tell me about it.'

Legolas quickened his pace until he was walking just a bit ahead and to the left of Charlotte. Legolas 'accidentally' managed to trip Charlotte up. The she-elf fell over, hit her head on a tree root and lay motionless.

'Oh my gosh!' cried Legolas. 'I am so sorry!'

Feigning surprise, Legolas knelt down beside Charlotte. As Legolas had hoped, Charlotte was unconscious.

'She conscious?' called Aragorn through the trees.

There was no reply. Aragorn frowned at the others. They could see Legolas from the side and Charlotte's legs (the rest of her was hidden behind a tree) and there didn't seem to be anything wrong, but Legolas remained silent. Legolas got slowly to his feet and raised his hands to shoulder height. The others ran over and saw why Legolas kept his silence.

A group of elves stood before Legolas, three of them with drawn bows aimed at Legolas's heart. Once the rest of the Fellowship joined Legolas, the rest of the elves surrounded them and pointed drawn bows at them.

'You do realise, don't you,' said the leader of the elves to Legolas, 'That the humans breathe so loudly that we could have shot them in the dark?'

'Yes. I do,' replied Legolas. 'And I never truly realised how quiet elves were until spending over three weeks with this lot. Humans really are the noisiest creatures to walk this earth.'

'What did His Royal Highness say?' asked Boromir.

'He said that humans are the noisiest creatures that walk this earth,' translated Aragorn.

'Sit back and watch the fireworks,' Boromir muttered to Aragorn. In a louder and more innocent voice he said, 'Oh, I don't know. That Balrog was pretty noisy.'

'Don't say the name!' Legolas almost roared.

'You faced a Bal... er... you-know-what?' asked the leader of the elves incredulously. 'Moreover, you were within a mile of one and lived to tell the tale?'

'Well we didn't face it, per se, we spent most of the time wisely running away from it actually, but we were within thirty yards of one. In my opinion, we were all very lucky to escape with our lives.'

'I don't blame you for running away but who exactly are you?'

'My name is Legolas, Son of Thranduil; the annoying humans are Aragorn, Son of Arathorn and Boromir of Gondor; the Halflings are Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybuck, Peregrin Took and Frodo Baggins; the dwarf is Gimli, Son of Glóin and-'

'I see. So then you are the Prince of Mirkwood?'

'Yes.'

'Have you seen Lord Elrond's daughter, Alanna, recently? I know she was travelling with you, but where is she?

Legolas wordlessly pointed to the ground. The other elf looked down and spotted Alanna.

'Ah,' he said.

'Legolas,' moaned Alanna from the ground. 'Did you have to make me trip over? A pinch on the back of the neck works just as well and doesn't give me a headache for the next day or two.'

'Well, now I know for next time,' said Legolas tersely, looking down. 'But if I have my way, there won't be a next time.'

Everyone else looked down and saw Alanna looking up at Legolas. Her eyes were their normal sapphire blue and her voice was back to normal.

'Oh, hello Haldir,' Alanna said, spotting the strange elf. 'It hasn't been that long since I was last here, has it?'

'A year? Maybe a bit more?' said Haldir. 'Precisely what are you doing here, might I ask?'

'Assisting this lot,' Alanna said, waving her hand in the general direction of the others. 'Now would you two lovely boys give me a hand?'

Haldir and Legolas helped Alanna to her feet. She brushed the leaves off her shirt and trousers and out of her hair and then turned to face Legolas, hands on hips.

'Don't look at me that way, Allie,' Legolas said, forestalling Alanna's inevitable tirade. 'You know that Charlotte drives me insane.'

'You're right,' Alanna sighed, removing her hands from her hips. 'Now can we please get going? I need to sleep. Badly.'

'But you've spent the entire time from Moria almost to here in a dead faint!' protested Boromir. 'How can you need to sleep?'

'I'm not physically tired, but if I go for much longer without sleep, my brain is going to shut down for a few hours. Switching between being two completely different people in the space of a few hours is very mentally draining.'

'Two different people?' asked Haldir, signalling the other elves to lower their weapons.

Legolas and Alanna looked at each other.

'Later, Haldir,' Alanna said. 'Much later.'

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At about sunset on the next day, the Fellowship arrived at Caras Galadhon. They followed Haldir up a lot of stairs that wound up the outside of one of the trees and when the reached the top, Lady Galadriel and Lord Celeborn were waiting for them.

'Nine there are here, yet ten there were that set out from Rivendell. Where is Gandalf the Grey?' asked Celeborn.

'He did not pass the borders of this land,' said Galadriel. 'He has fallen into shadow.'

'It was a Balrog,' said Aragorn. 'We should not have gone into Moria.'

All elves flinched at the mention of the Balrog.

'You must remain here for a while. Rest and recover and then you may continue on your journey,' continued Galadriel.

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Night fell and, almost, all of the Fellowship were getting ready to sleep.

'Where'd Legolas go?' Aragorn asked.

As if on cue, the blond elf came into view between the trees. He was talking with Galadriel who currently had her eyebrows raised at something Legolas had said. Legolas asked something else and Galadriel nodded vigorously. Legolas then turned and walked resolutely towards the rest of the Fellowship.

'What was that about?' asked Boromir.

'Just something I needed to clear up,' replied Legolas, studiously avoiding Alanna's gaze.

Alanna fixed Legolas with a calculating stare that made him flinch.

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About a week later, the Fellowship were preparing to leave. Everyone had been informed of the plan, which was to use boats and paddle down the river until they reached the Falls of Rauros. Once there, they would decide whether to go to Mordor via Minas Tirith, Boromir's city, or to cross the Emyn Muil, a maze of mountains that, according to Gimli, were impassable, and then attempt to find a way through the Dead Marshes and approach Mordor that way.

They were making preparations to leave the next day when it was noticed that Alanna wasn't with them.

'Where is she?' asked Merry.

'It's me,' said Legolas. 'She's been avoiding me all week.'

'Why would she do that?' asked Pippin.

'She knows,' sighed Legolas.

'Knows what?'

'She isn't coming with us to Mordor.'

'So it's true,' came a voice behind them.

Everyone turned around to see Alanna standing behind them with a betrayed look on her face.

'Alanna, I... Yes,' said Legolas with a sigh.

'I suspected you would try something like this but it won't work.'

'Allie, please!'

In response, Alanna turned on her heel and ran through the trees. Legolas sighed.

'She'll keep reminding me about this forever. And, for me, forever is a very, very long time.'

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Alanna ran straight to the place where she could see the group leave. Alanna was very pleased with herself as she had had the foresight to 'arrange' supplies for herself for as long as it would take the Fellowship to reach Rauros Falls.

She would not be able to accost them while they were on the river, but once they reached Rauros and had to decide the route, she would make her appearance.

She transformed into a wolf and loped off into the forest. She changed into an elf and gathered her things: weapons, spare clothes, her supplies, et cetera; put everything into her pack; swung it onto her back; changed back into a wolf and ran off into the forest.

She had almost left Caras Galadhon when a voice came from the trees.

'Just where do you think you're going?' asked Haldir, stepping out of the shadows.

Alanna sighed mentally and changed back.

'Don't try to stop me Haldir,' Alanna said. 'You can't beat me in a swordfight and you know it.'

'But where are you going?'

'I'm following them. I refuse to be left behind while they put their lives at risk. If there's any risk taking to be done then I am going to be a part of it.'

'But what about Charlotte? You told me what happened in Moria and with the dragon. Charlotte could be a very big problem.'

'Oh don't you start,' Alanna growled. 'First it was Legolas, now it's you. Are all of my friends turning against me?'

'No! I just don't think it's a good idea. If you want to go then you'd better do it quickly before your boyfriend comes.'

'He is **not** my boyfriend.'

Alanna glanced around to make sure Legolas was nowhere nearby.

'I'll deal with you later,' she snarled.

She changed quickly into a wolf again and raced off. Alanna disappeared through the trees and Haldir sighed.

_If Legolas finds out that I let her go, I am a dead elf, _he thought.

_oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO o_

Later that day, the remaining members of the Fellowship returned to their sleeping quarters. They had conducted a search over the whole of Caras Galadhon but there had been no sign of Alanna.

'Where could she be?' asked Aragorn in wonder. 'I know you elves are good at hiding but could she evade the eight of us and half the elves of Lothlórien for three hours?'

'No,' said Legolas firmly. 'Only if she-' Legolas stopped mid-sentence.

'Only if she what?' asked Boromir.

'How could I have been so stupid?' Legolas exclaimed. 'Aragorn, where are her belongings?'

'They're gone,' he replied.

'I am going to murder her,' said Legolas. 'Best friend or no, I am going to murder her.'

'These look like pawprints,' said Pippin examining the ground.

Boromir was puzzled. 'Why would there be pawprints?'

'She's gone,' came Haldir's voice from somewhere. 'I tried to stop her but she got away. It's so dangerous for her! She'll be killed!'

'Yes,' Legolas growled. 'By me.'

'She's a dangerous girl when she wants to be. She'll be fine,' said Aragorn.

He said this in a reassuring tone but Legolas remained caught between anger and worry.

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**O-makes!**

**Somewhere between Rivendell and Moria:**

Alanna and Legolas were on guard duty while the rest of the fellowship slept, and, as usual, Alanna was not being serious. She beckoned Legolas over to a small rock ledge, and pulled out a big camouflage-patterned metal device. This device was huge, easily as tall as Gimli, and Legolas stared.

'Where the heck did you store that thing?' asked Legolas.

'Don't ask,' she told him, before lifting it up, and peering into a slot in the base.

She then crouched down until her head was not visible over the ledge at all, only the big metal thing, which Legolas still did not know what is was. He was about to ask, when she turned towards him, the top half of the metal thing sporting a gigantic mirror, and shrieked loudly.

He looked around wildly and hissed, 'What? What is it?'

She dropped the metal thing and half-sobbed 'There's this tiny creepy blond elf somewhere!'

Legolas jumped and looked behind him 'A creepy blond... Oh very funny, Alanna, very witty.'

She was rolling around on the ground, cackling with laughter. 'Your face was so funny!'

He rolled his eyes, but asked her anyway, 'What was that thing?'

She rolled her eyes, walking back to camp.

'Haven't you ever seen a periscope before?'

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**A Note From Angela and Opal:**

**Opal: I can't think of anything more to say than: Please review.**

**Angela: Yes do! We like reviews! Especially when they contain sugar!**

**Opal: Angela! You know that you aren't allowed sugar after the incident with the custard pies and your turn to clean the windows. I don't think the readers need the details to work out what happened.**

**Angela: He he he...**

**Opal: Until next time! Auf Wiedersehen! If I'm still alive, that is...**


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six- The Fellowship Breaks**

Angela: *bouncing around the room, literally* I, ow, love, ow, disclaimers! Ow!

Opal: *strides inside, then ducks to avoid the bouncing Angela* Angela! What the shoelaces are you doing?... Oh no, you ate the sugar right? *backs away slowly*

Angela: Yup, ow! What are you doing, ow, in here, ow, Opal?

Opal: *grabs Angela and ties her to a chair, then grabs chair when it starts floating, and ties it down* I'm here to start the disclaimer, remember? It's my turn today. Angela and I don't own Lord of the...

Angela: WAIT! I've just discovered that I do own Lord of the Rings! Yay!

Alanna and Legolas: *shouting* WHAT?

Angela: Yup! I went online, and it was on sale for three sugar candies and a banana shaped dog!

Alanna and Legolas: *shouting* YOOOOU! SHALL NOT! OWN!

Angela: *sulky* Fine! Opal and I don't own Lord of the Rings, we only own Alanna and Charlotte. Happy now?

Alanna and Legolas: *relieved* Yes.

Opal: Hey! I was supposed to do this disclaimer! How come you got it?

Angela: *casually vanishes the chair and falls on ground, then stands up and starts chasing Opal around the room* Because I'm on a sugar high, and nothing ever goes as planned when that happens! Uh oh, end of sugar rush. *falls flat on face*

Opal: *sighs in relief before drags Angela away* Goodbye, and for the love of the gods, do not feed her sugar in reviews.

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Alanna watched the Fellowship prepare to leave again. It was four days since they had set out and five since she had left Lothlórien. She hoped that none of the Fellowship would venture to far into the trees else they would discover her. Legolas was almost constantly pale and had said barely ten words since they'd left Lothlórien even though he was usually very talkative.

_Serves him right_, thought Alanna, stifling a growl. _How __**dare**__ he try and leave me behind._

After four days, Alanna was still fuming and looked set to remain that way for another week or more.

The Fellowship loaded up the boats and paddled out into the river. Alanna quickly shifted and set off at a leisurely pace. It wasn't hard to follow them. As long as she kept the river on her left and stayed out of sight she couldn't lose them.

**Five days later...**

'Have any of you ever had the feeling that you're being watched?' asked Merry.

The Fellowship had reached Rauros Falls and were now trying to decide where to go.

'No, but last time you voiced that sort of opinion we really were being watched,' replied Pippin.

There was the sound of a stick cracking under someone's boot in the bushes nearby. Everyone readied their weapons. Aragorn nodded at Legolas who silently walked forward and disappeared into the bushes. He returned looking puzzled.

'I found fresh footprints but they don't go anywhere or come from anywhere. They seem to just appear,' said the elf.

'Odd,' frowned Aragorn. 'To the best of my knowledge, no one can just appear and then disappear just like that.'

'We must be cautious.'

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Alanna stifled a yelp as a stick cracked under her foot. Legolas was sent to investigate and she had no choice but to shift back to elf, then to cat, and jump into the nearest tree's shadow. Legolas inspected the place where she had been but was puzzled by her footprints seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

_Don't check the tree_, Alanna pleaded silently. _Please don't check the tree_.

After a last look around Legolas returned to the camp.

'I found fresh footprints but they don't go anywhere or come from anywhere. They seem to just appear,' he said to the others.

_Phew_, Alanna thought resisting the urge to sigh with relief.

She suddenly saw that Frodo was missing and so was Boromir. She couldn't reveal her presence as that would distract the Fellowship from the task at hand, namely, looking for Frodo. She slipped out of the tree, changed, and picked up a few stones. She climbed to the top of the tree and, with perfect aim, threw one of the stones at Boromir's shield which he had left behind. The others failed to notice the first time, or even the second, that Frodo and Boromir had disappeared but on the third attempt, Merry finally asked the question.

'Where's Frodo?' he asked.

_Thick as several short planks the lot of them,_ thought the exasperated elf. _Now all they have to do is go and look for them because Boromir will blab if I appear and then my secret would be out._

Sure enough, Aragorn went off to look for Frodo while the others waited back at camp.

_What was that?_ Alanna thought, stiffening.

The sound of steel on steel echoed through the woods. The rest of the Fellowship dashed off to find the source of the fighting and Alanna leapt down from her tree. She ran through the trees and found Merry and Pippin about to be flanked by a lot of orcs that weren't quite the orcs Alanna was used to.

They were larger, almost man-high, and wore different armour. They had strange weapons that were sort of like long, flat bars of steel with a spike protruding at right angles from one end. The strange orcs bore helmets with a white hand painted on them. Alanna had only a second to process these things as Boromir was now fighting the orcs almost single-handedly.

_And Legolas and Aragorn call __**me**__ reckless,_ Alanna thought.

She changed into a wolf, and began attacking all the orcs who came near her tree, slashing and biting viciously as she did so.

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Merry and Pippin were now in a right fix. They had run off looking for the source of the clanging noises and had encountered a lot of orcs. The inquisitive hobbits had hidden in some bushes until the orcs had passed and had then tried to get Frodo, who had been hiding behind a tree across from them, to come and hide with them. Merry had deduced that Frodo, who refused to hide, was leaving the Fellowship and going off to Mordor on his own. Merry and Pippin then distracted the orcs and led them in the wrong direction while Frodo made his escape.

This had worked out just fine until Merry and Pippin had reached the bottom of a small valley in which they had encountered orcs coming down from both sides of the small valley. The two hobbits had given themselves up for lost but then Boromir came running through the trees and began valiantly fighting the orcs. Soon after that, more than a few of the orcs near the back fell, each with bites or claw marks on its chest.

Suddenly, Merry and Pippin noticed with horror that, while Boromir was occupied with the orcs, one of them was aiming a bow at him.

The orc was standing beneath the tree from which the attacks that were killing the orcs seemed to be coming from. As the orc was about to fire at Boromir, a wolf with grey and black fur leapt out from behind the tree and landed right behind the orc, growling viciously to get its attention. The orc in question whirled about to face its newest foe.

Ten seconds later, the orc fell onto the ground with a muffled thump. Standing behind it was the wolf. The two hobbits ran away, so they didn't see the wolf turn into Alanna, pale with exhaustion.

Boromir looked stunned. To have his life saved by Alanna, the person with whom he argued the most, was a lot to take in. Alanna said nothing. Neither did Boromir. Boromir knew nothing about _rethos_ forms, so to him, it was normal for Alanna to have two forms.

Suddenly, a yell split the air, and Boromir and Alanna saw the hobbits being taken by the orcs and charged after them. The orcs wouldn't have gotten far if Boromir hadn't tripped on a tree root and fallen, hitting his head and getting knocked out as he did so. Alanna could easily have overtaken the orcs without him but when he tripped, she tripped over him and rolled down the hill. She, thankfully, didn't get knocked out but by the time she returned to the place where the orcs had been, it was too late.

Alanna set about piling the orcs up for burning, and, just as she had finished with the last orc, her keen elven ears heard the faint sound of footsteps. She dived behind a tree and was able to be able to observe with out being observed. Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli came running through the trees with Legolas in the lead. He stopped short and Aragorn and Gimli almost crashed into him.

The trio saw dead orcs strewn all over the place and saw Boromir's boots sticking out from behind a tree but they saw no sign of anyone else. Boromir stirred, groaned and got to his feet.

'What happened?' cried Aragorn.

'The orcs took Merry and Pippin,' Boromir said shakily. 'I thought one of their archers was going to kill me but Alanna killed him. She saved my life and killed many of these orcs. She can turn into a wolf, as well as a cat. Why didn't you tell us, Legolas?'

'You're delirious, Boromir,' Legolas said in a rather lordly tone. 'If Alanna had been here and killed more than a few of the orcs then she would be present. As such, I can see no sign of her.'

'But... But... What if she left afterwards?'

'You're clutching at straws, Boromir. And think about it. You and Alanna can barely stand the sight of each other. You two can't be in the same room and not start arguing. Why would she save your life?'

'Alanna was here, she was a wolf, and nothing you say can convince me to change my mind,' Boromir said stubbornly.

_Sorry to do this to you, Boromir_, Alanna thought. _But while we are relatively close to Lothlórien, I can't let Legolas know that I'm here or he'd send me back._

'Which way did the orcs go?' Gimli cut in before Legolas and Boromir could start a row. 'Slightly more to the point, where in Middle Earth are Frodo and Sam?'

'Frodo decided to go to Mordor alone,' Aragorn answered. 'Taking into account the fact that Sam is not present and Boromir says that the orcs only took Merry and Pippin, my guess would be that Sam has accompanied Frodo. As for which way the orcs went...'

Aragorn looked around and spotted a trail of heavy footprints heading west.

'I think they went that way,' Aragorn continued, pointing.

'You don't say,' Legolas muttered sarcastically.

_Boys_, thought Alanna. _What that lot would do if I weren't here to make decisions for them, I __**don't**__ know._

She picked up a good sized rock and with a flick of her wrist tossed it over the heads of the men so that it hit a tree with a very loud _thunk_. Legolas, Aragorn, Boromir and Gimli all turned to look at the noise and, while their attention was elsewhere, Alanna slipped out from her hiding spot and bolted for the river.

She returned to the place where the Fellowship had left their boats, and 'borrowed' some more supplies from the others' campsite and, after she had done that, she changed into a wolf and urged herself into a canter. She ran through the trees, following the orc trail, determined to beat the boys to the orcs.

**A Note From Angela and Opal:**

**Opal: Now, those who have read and/or seen **_**Lord of the Rings**_** will notice that this Chapter marks the end of **_**The Fellowship of the Ring**_** and the beginning of **_**The Two Towers**_**. Now we can move onto Fangorn Forest, Edoras, The Battle of Helm's Deep, et cetera.**

**Angela: Yay! Can I have sugar to celebrate?**

**Opal: NO!**

**Angela: Please…**

**Opal: I'll do you a deal. If ten or more readers say you can have sugar then you can have sugar. If not then, NO SUGAR! But, of course, the readers won't say you can have sugar if they know what is good for them… *glares at readers, daring them to give Angela sugar in any way, shape or form***

**Angela: *giving readers the puppy dog eyes* Sugar? Pleeeeeeease?**


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven- Rohan**

Syletah: Angela and Opal don't own Lord of the Rings. They only own the Ring. My precious! *stares lovingly at ring stolen off a passer by*

Angela: *runs in, snatches ring and gives it back to the passer by* No! We own Alanna and Charlotte, not the Ring, and certainly not that ring.

Syletah: But... But... My precious!? Where has my Precious gone?

Opal: NOT yours, got it. NOT YOURS!

Syletah: *sulkily* Fine. Do I get a fish?

Angela: *sighing* Fine. You get a fish. In fact, you get this one! *pulls out a goldfish in a bag, and hands it to Syletah*

Syletah: Yay! My fishy! I'm gonna call you Fanta!

Fanta: Glug glug glug!

Angela: *translates* He says that he wants to be in a bowl.

Syletah: *runs off* I will get you your bowl Fanta! Bye!

Angela and Opal: Bye!

_oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO o_

After a rather long and lengthy discussion, Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli and Boromir had decided to follow the orcs and now they were running along the orc trail. They had been doing this for two days, so far, and were beginning to lose hope of ever reaching the orcs.

The quartet followed the trail into a small ravine. Aragorn, who was in the lead, suddenly bent to the ground and picked something up. It was one of the green leaf clasps that fastened the elven cloaks that Galadriel had given them before they left Lothlórien.

'Not idly do the leaves of Lórien fall,' said Aragorn.

'Then they must still be alive,' said Legolas. 'Or, at least, one of them is.'

'So we go on?' asked Gimli who was always lagging behind the others.

'Definitely,' Aragorn said. 'Legolas? What's wrong?'

Legolas crouched down and examined something in the grass.

'Pawprints,' he breathed. 'I'd say about six hours after the orcs passed this place.'

'Pawprints?' asked Boromir. 'Like the ones we saw at the falls? Are we in danger here?'

'I have a hunch. I just hope I'm wrong.'

_oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO o_

A few more hours of running later, Legolas alerted the others to the approach of a company of riders.

'Are they enemies?' asked Gimli. 'Do we run and hide or do we wait for them?'

'I say we wait for them,' Aragorn stated after a few minutes silent contemplation. 'But not here in the open where they could run us down before they saw us. We'll go behind those rocks.'

He pointed to a cluster of the rocks that were scattered around the plains. The four of them hid and soon enough, the riders passed. Aragorn and the others leaped out of hiding and Aragorn called out to the Riders.

'Riders of Rohan! What news from the Mark?'

The riders turned their horses about and rode back, forming a circle of spears around Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas and Gimli.

One of the riders rode forward and dismounted.

'What business do two men, an elf and a dwarf have in the Riddermark?' he asked. 'Speak quickly!'

'Give me your name, horsemaster,' said Gimli. 'And I shall give you mine.'

Legolas rolled his eyes but slipped a hand around his sword hilt just in case things got ugly.

'I would cut off your head, dwarf. If it stood but a little higher from the ground,' snapped the rider.

Legolas drew his sword and the riders raised their spears until they were inches away from the elf, but Aragorn stepped in before things got ugly.

'We are friends of this land, and of Théoden, your king,' he said.

'Théoden no longer recognises friend from foe. Not even his own family,' said the rider removing his helmet. 'I am Éomer, son of Éomund and Théoden's nephew. The king's mind has been overthrown by the wizard, Saruman. Saruman walks here and there, they say, as an old man, hooded and cloaked. And everywhere his spies slip through our nets.'

Here Éomer looked pointedly at Legolas who still had his sword out.

'And what, pray tell, are you looking at me for?' asked Legolas coldly.

Éomer said nothing but soon quailed under the icy glare Legolas shot at him. Boromir decided to change the subject before Legolas, being Legolas, challenged Éomer to a duel.

'We are tracking a party of orcs across the plains,' Boromir said quickly. 'They took two of our friends captive.'

'The orcs are dead,' Éomer said in surprise. 'We killed them during the night.'

'But there were two hobbits, did you see two hobbits with them?' asked Gimli.

'We found none but orcs. We piled the carcasses and burned them,' answered Éomer. 'But you might be able to explain something to me. When we were fighting the orcs, I saw, and some of my men did too, something strange. A wolf, female, with grey and black fur, fighting the orcs. I didn't see it attack any men, only orcs. I did not see what became of it after the battle but it might have gone into Fangorn Forest.'

'My suspicions have just been confirmed,' Legolas said, scowling. 'And I really wish they hadn't been.'

'What suspicions?' asked Aragorn.

'I told you Alanna turned into a wolf.' Boromir interrupted. 'What if that was her?'

'Legolas threw a wary look at Éomer, then lowered his voice, and told the group, 'I'm sorry for deceiving you, Boromir, but Alanna probably was at the falls, as the wolf, and, from what we've just heard, fighting orcs, too. The wolf is the _rethos_ form she was born with, but Charlotte's form is the cat, and they can use each others forms as well as their own. Understand?'

'Why didn't you tell us?' Boromir asked, looking hurt.

'It was Alanna's idea. She always has something up her sleeve. A last line of defence, as it were. Also, we are forbidden to tell anyone not an elf about our forms unless they know, or they have seen the transformation. So I can't tell you mine. It is pretty spectacular though.' Legolas looked slightly smug as he said this.

As the others gaped at this new information, Éomer spoke up.

'Do you need transport? You seem rather stranded, if I may say?'

'Well spotted,' said Legolas, his voice saturated with sarcasm. 'But this is very off topic. Did you see two hobbits with the orcs? They would be small. Only children to your eyes.'

'Orcs all the way.'

'Dead?' asked Gimli in a slightly strangled voice.

'I'm sorry.'

There was silence as the foursome came to grips with what they had just heard. Éomer then summoned three spare horses, one bay, one chestnut and one white, and handed their reins to Boromir, Aragorn and Legolas.

'Look for your friends,' said Éomer as he got back onto his horse. 'But do not trust to hope. It has forsaken these lands.'

Éomer rode off and his men followed him leaving Legolas, Aragorn, Boromir and Gimli behind. Legolas got up onto his horse and Aragorn got up on his, leaving Gimli to ride with Boromir. They galloped down the orcs trail and were soon at the battle site.

A pile of orc carcasses smouldered a little way away from the trees of a great forest. All four dismounted and began to search the site. Aragorn found two sets of hobbit tracks along with one, very faint, set of pawprints both leading into the forest.

'Fantastic,' Legolas groaned. 'She's gone into Fangorn. Just what we needed.'

'Are we going in after them?' asked Boromir somewhat nervously.

'Of course!' said Aragorn. 'We've come this far haven't we? It would be cowardly of us to not go on and abandon our friends.'

'Well, you're the expert tracker,' Legolas said drily. 'Which way did they go?'

Aragorn examined the tracks and after a few minutes led the others into the woods.

**The night before (approximately 10:18 pm)...**

Alanna was hiding behind a tree. Spread out before her was a large company of the strange orcs that she had fought down by the river. Merry and Pippin were tied up and, for the moment, weren't being given much attention. Alanna wished that she could dash out, grab the hobbits and return to the forest but she did not dare. They were to far away and, when their absence was discovered, a terrible hue and cry would be raised and the orcs would run into the forest searching for the captives.

The orcs, Alanna learnt, were not from Mordor, as she had assumed, but from Saruman.

_Slimy little twerp_, she thought contemptuously. _I'll bet he wants the Ring for himself. If it weren't for his greed then we wouldn't be in this predicament, would we._

_Yes you would_, came a voice inside her head. _You're so reckless that, one way or another, you still would have ended up surrounded by orcs and you would still be trying to find a way to defeat them single-handedly._

_Oh shut up, Charlotte_, Alanna thought, rolling her eyes. _Just when I thought you'd finally gone quiet, you had to go and start speaking again. Now shut up. I need to think and having you chattering on every second of every minute of every hour of every day isn't helping my concentration._

Charlotte had been talking almost incessantly inside Alanna's head since Lothlórien but she had been silent during the battle by the river and for the days there after.

_I think you and I need to have a little chat about your ego, missy_, came Charlotte's scornful reply accompanied by a haughty sniff. _You've been getting a bit full of yourself lately. Also, I've noticed that you seem to have a habit of hiding behind trees and in them. I think you should stop. Why not try hiding behind something more interesting, like a rock or something._

_Because a rock is just so interesting. Now, do you want me to booby trap the soul-room until you can't breathe the next time I'm in there, or will you kindly SHUT UP!_ Alanna growled in her mind.

After that Charlotte stayed silent but it did not help. Suddenly, there came the sound of many horse riders approaching. Alanna saw this as the perfect opportunity and, when the riders appeared, she transformed into a wolf, and bolted from her hiding place.

She covered the distance between Merry and Pippin in seconds, transformed, and began untying them before anyone noticed her.

'Where did you spring from?' asked Merry in surprise.

'No time,' Alanna answered shortly. 'When I'm done, run for the trees as fast as you can.'

Both hobbits nodded and as soon as their bonds were cut, they scrambled to their feet and sprinted into the forest. They turned back at the tree line and saw not Alanna, but a wolf, fighting for its life. At a break in the battle, the wolf turned and caught sight of Merry and Pippin standing at the edge of Fangorn.

'Go!' she yelled, though all the hobbit could hear was a howl. 'Run!'

Alanna did not have time to see whether or not Merry and Pippin got the message as another wave of orcs came at her and she was forced to pay attention to them. When most of the orcs had been taken care of and the last ones were being rounded up and killed, Alanna dashed away into the forest, not seeing Éomer watch her leave with a puzzled frown.

**Fangorn Forest, now...**

Aragorn continued further into Fangorn leading the others along the hobbit's trail. Aragorn was a little way ahead of the others when there was a splash behind him and raucous laughter. Aragorn looked behind him and immediately doubled up laughing.

Boromir and Gimli had been conspiring against Legolas for ages. When they had been on the river, the two had planned to push him into the river but that never happened what with one thing and another. Now, however, Boromir and Gimli had formed a new plan which they had just carried out.

Boromir had 'accidentally' stuck out his foot, tripping Legolas up and making him fall into the forest stream which Aragorn had just crossed. The elf in question got to his feet, dripping wet and with a look on his face that could have curdled new milk.

'There will be consequences for the pair of you,' Legolas growled. 'So you'd better watch out.'

'It was a mere accident!' Boromir cried.

'Accident, my foot. You two have been conspiring against me for ages, I know you have.'

With that, he turned on his heel and stalked off past the still laughing Aragorn. There was a rustling in the trees just behind Legolas and he stopped. Someone fell out of the tree just behind him and hit the forest floor with a muffled thump.

Legolas turned and raised an eyebrow but then he frowned.

'What is it?' asked Aragorn coming over closely followed by the others. 'Oh!'

The someone turned out to be Alanna. In falling out of the tree, she had been knocked out and Legolas wondered whether it would be Alanna or Charlotte. He soon found out. Alanna's eyes flickered open and she sat up.

'What is it with her and falling out of things?' asked Charlotte. 'She has a very annoying habit of doing that and it's driving me mad.'

Legolas moaned. Charlotte got to her feet, brushed herself down and then noticed Legolas. By way of greeting she threw her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek.

**Inside Alanna's head, just before Charlotte kisses Legolas...**

_Great_, thought Alanna. _Just great. Now she'll do something bad, I know she will._

Alanna did not have time to ponder what Charlotte would do as her intentions were evident in her thoughts.

'Don't do it!' Alanna cried.

But it was too late. Charlotte had already kissed Legolas. Alanna fell onto her bed.

'She has completely ruined my friendship with Legolas,' moaned Alanna.

_What?_ asked Charlotte. _What did I do?_

'You kissed him!'

_You don't want to?_

'Oh you are impossible.'

_Ooooh! Somebody likes him!_

'How can I ever face him again?' Alanna asked, not particularly expecting an answer. 'You've ruined everything!'

_Tell him how you feel, _came Charlotte's unexpected reply._ I'm not the only one who likes him._

'It was a rhetorical question,' Alanna said primly.

_I don't need a grammar lesson from you, missy. Your ego is getting far to big for your own good. No good will-_

Alanna drowned out Charlotte's words and began wondering what she would do if Charlotte got herself knocked out, and in the meantime, how to prank this room. With a devious smirk, she got to work.

**Fangorn Forest, now...**

Aragorn, Gimli and Boromir were completely thrown by Charlotte's latest action but Legolas was, if anything, even more shocked. Charlotte, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to her shocked companions.

'Now,' she said happily. 'Which way did the hobbits go?'

'Errrr...' said Boromir. 'I'm not sure. Aragorn?'

Aragorn looked at the ground again and continued leading the others after the hobbits. Boromir and Gimli were directly behind Aragorn with Charlotte behind them, still oblivious to how the others had reacted to what she had done. The thoroughly drenched and still shocked Legolas brought up the rear as Aragorn led them ever deeper into Fangorn Forest.

**A Note From Angela and Opal:**

**Angela: Well, well, well!**

**Opal: Three holes in the ground.**

**Angela: Ha ha ha. So Charlie (Charlotte) has kissed Legolas and Alanna's forms are finally revealed. What will happen next? Tell us! Tell us!**

**Opal: Nope. I'm not revealing anything...**

**Angela: Awwwww...**

**Opal: Mostly because I don't know myself.**

**Angela: Oh...**

**Opal: Oh, and another thing, sorry to you all for posting this later than usual. Our school hates us and we have been without internet or email for nigh on two weeks. *sad face***

**Angela: *restrains Opal from going and berating the technical assistants for shoddy work* Well see all of you readers next week with Chapter Eight (which will be on time, we promise)! And please review!**


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8- The White Wizard**

Opal: *typing furiously on a computer* Angela! We have to do something about our disclaimers! They're not funny anymore!

Angela: *lazily watching Opal* Oh, I don't know, they're pretty good. Remember my motto. Yoooooooooooooouuuuu. Shall not. FAIL! (except in maths)

Opal: But you don't HAVE a motto.

Angela: *fiercely* I do now! Anyway, the point is, you're stressing to much about these stupid disclaimers! If you're not careful, you'll start getting hallucinations!

Suddenly a wild Draxie appeared!

Opal: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHH! HELP! I'm hallucinating a disturbing cross between a pixie and a dragon! How does that even work?!

Angela: Ummmmm... Opal.

Opal: *nervously* What?

Angela: *smiles* I don't think it's a hallucination.

Opal: *faints*

Angela: *turns to Draxie* Thanks! I don't think I could have stood her ranting much longer.

Draxie: Don't worry, it was a pleasure.

Angela: *nods* Yeah, thanks. Can you go now, and I'll wake up Opal.

Draxie: Yeah, ok. See you later. Maybe I'll bring my friend Scratch to the next disclaimer.

Angela: Sure! I'll see you later!

Draxie: Bye!

Angela: *yells in Opal's ear* OPAL! YOUR MUM CALLED AND SHE SAID YOU FAILED THE MATHS TEST!

Opal: *jumps up* WHAT?

Angela: *laughs* Nah, jokes, but seriously we need to finish this disclaimer, it's already too long.

Opal: Alright then! Angela and I don't own Lord of the Rings, we only own the characters Alanna and Charlotte.

Angela: There, now lets go, we're late for school!

Opal: *panics* WHAT? Come on come on let's go!

Angela: *laughs as she is dragged out the door by a panicking Opal*

_oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOo_

'Someone's coming,' hissed Legolas, throwing out an arm to stop the others.

'The hobbits?' asked Boromir hopefully.

Legolas shook his head.

'Do we know who then?' asked Charlotte a little too loudly.

'Shut up, Charlie! Keep quiet. Still, if I had to guess, I'd say it was Saruman,' he said.

Boromir and Aragorn half-drew their swords and Gimli readied his axe. Legolas nocked an arrow and Charlotte hid behind a tree. A bright white light suddenly shone out from somewhere to the left of them blinding them all. Legolas fired somewhere in the general vicinity of the light and only missed because whoever-it-was stopped the arrow before it reached it's mark.

The weapons of all the other boys were rendered useless and a deep voice emanated from the source of the light.

'You are tracking the footsteps of two young hobbits. They passed this way the day before yesterday and met someone they did not expect to see,' the voice said.

'Who are you?' asked Aragorn.

The light dimmed and the last person any of them had expected to see stepped forward. It was Gandalf! At least, it looked like Gandalf. He was now wearing white robes instead of grey ones and carried a different staff. His hair and beard were white and his beard was a lot shorter than it used to be.

'I don't believe it!' cried Legolas. 'Gandalf? Is it really you?'

'Yes,' replied the old man. 'But I am now Gandalf the White.'

Charlotte stepped out from behind her tree and decided to completely ignore the fact that Gandalf had been dead and now wasn't dead.

'I really must break this ridiculous habit of hiding behind and in trees. It is sooooooo clichéd,' she said. 'Now, does anyone know where in the world we are?'

'That's the problem with you girls,' said Aragorn. 'You can't carry a map in your heads.'

'That's because our heads have something in them,' retorted Charlotte.

'Yes,' Legolas muttered, 'Like one of my friends.'

Luckily Aragon didn't hear him.

'How are Merry and Pippin?' asked Gimli before Charlotte and Aragorn started sniping at each other. 'You hinted that you've seen them.'

'I have,' confirmed Gandalf. 'And they are quite safe. Safer, in fact, that you are about to be.'

'Very reassuring, I'm sure,' muttered Legolas.

'But that still doesn't answer my question!' Charlotte said indignantly. 'Where in Middle Earth are we?'

She produced a map from somewhere, unrolled it and began trying to make sense of it.

'Can someone point it out to me on this map that Alanna nicked?' she continued. 'She seems to be able to make sense of it all but I can't make head or tail of it.'

Legolas helpfully turned the map the right way up.

'Come with me,' Gandalf said. 'We are going to Edoras to help King Théoden who, as you might remember, is being possessed by Saruman.'

The wizard turned and walked off in the direction from which the others had come from. They followed him through the trees and out of the forest with Charlotte still trying to make sense of the map.

**Inside Alanna's head...**

Alanna was doing her very best to booby trap her imagined room so that the next time Charlotte was in there, she would get a very nasty surprise. Alanna had limited resources but she had an idea and it was coming along quite nicely.

_What are you doing?_ asked Charlotte with her thoughts. _I hear suspicious noises._

'Building a pillow fort,' Alanna replied, determined to keep Charlotte in the dark. 'What does it look like I'm doing?'

_Well I don't know because I can't see what you are doing, can I? Two things, though. One) Why? and Two) You seem to be taking an awful long time on it._

'These things take time, you know.'

_Good point, but you haven't answered my question. Why?_

'I'm bored.'

_I see._

In reality, Alanna was not building a pillow fort. She was using some string she'd found under her bed to rig trip wires all over the floor so no matter where Charlotte stepped, she would trigger a booby trap.

Charlotte was not very observant and would be far too interested in what was going on outside in the real world to notice some string at ankle height in the virtual one. At least, this was what Alanna was counting on.

The trap was complex in its building but it was coming along quite nicely. First, Alanna dragged the pillows and blankets off the bed, took her extra blankets and pillows out from under the bed and stuffed them all into the wardrobe so that, when the door was opened, they would fall out and land on top of whoever opened the door. Alanna realised that this was not going to be very effective unless Charlotte was standing right next the the wardrobe so she came up with another plan,

The wardrobe had a hinged false bottom that opened outwards in Alanna's real bedroom and so it did in the virtual one. This was normally where Alanna hid things that she, strictly speaking, wasn't supposed to have. Her secret stash of chocolate, was a prime example of this. Alanna decided that now the secret compartment was going to be used for launching pillows.

Alanna removed the pillows and blankets and tied a bit of the string onto the hook which was how the false bottom was opened. She ran the string out of the wardrobe and then shoved the bedclothes back in.

Next, she took the string and wound it around and around the various pieces of furniture so that, when pulled, it would simultaneously yank open the door of the wardrobe; pull the false bottom on the wardrobe up, launching the pillows out; and tip the bookshelves so that the books would fall out and onto the floor.

No matter where Charlotte tried to walk, she would not be able to avoid triggering the trap.

_I'd like to see her disentangle herself from this mess,_ Alanna thought proudly.

She carefully stepped between the gaps in the string, leaped onto her bed and sat down to wait.

**Outside Fangorn Forest...**

Once they emerged from the trees, Gandalf gave a loud whistle and a pure white horse with no saddle or bridle came galloping over the plains towards them. It was followed by the bay, chestnut and white horses that Éomer had given to Legolas, Aragorn, Boromir and Gimli, and also by Alanna's black stallion. Charlotte had no idea where Alanna's horse came from, seeing as he had been left behind at Rivendell, but she didn't complain, seeing as she despised 'going wolf' as she called it. Everyone except Charlotte and Legolas got onto their horses but Charlotte was adamant that ladies should ride sidesaddle as this was 'proper'. She needed a lot of coaxing, and a leg up, to finally get her to ride the way Alanna did but they finally managed to get going.

_oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOo_

About two days later, the Fellowship of the Ring, minus four hobbits, arrived at the city of Edoras. The city was situated in a very good position on top of a hill with views for miles around. The small group had no trouble getting into the city but once they arrived at the hall at the top, wherein resided King Théoden, they were accosted at the door by a group of seven guards. One of them stepped forward.

'My name is Hama and I am afraid to say that, if you wish to speak with the king, you must deposit your weapons here,' he said.

'Who says?' inquired Legolas.

'It is the order of the king's chief advisor, a man named Gríma Wormtongue,' was the answer.

'I know him,' growled Charlotte. 'A few years back he tried to...'

Charlotte stopped at the look on Gandalf's face.

'Tried to what?' inquired Hama.

'Tried to steal my sword,' finished Charlotte.

'Hmmm...' said Hama unconvinced. 'Very well. Leave your weapons here and I shall take you to the king.'

Almost all of the others gave up their weapons. Gandalf managed to sidestep Hama's request that he leave his staff behind and Aragorn was reluctant to let his sword out of his sight. Charlotte took a subtle step sideways while giving her bow and arrows to Hama but tripped, 'accidentally' managing to get her boot tugged off in the process.

'Damn and blast,' she said with convincingly faked frustration.

She yanked her boot back on but Legolas caught a fleeting glimpse of her dagger as she surreptitiously transferred it from her belt to he boot. Charlotte stood up and acted as if nothing had happened but winked at Legolas. Everyone then turned their attention to Aragorn who was still adamant that he was not going to leave his sword behind where it could be stolen.

'Let's speed things up a bit,' Charlotte muttered to Legolas.

Without waiting for an answer, she slipped around so she was standing just behind Aragorn and, with light fingers, unbuckled Aragorn's sword from his belt and placed it among the weapons of the others. She then slid back around so that she was standing next to Legolas. Aragorn never suspected a thing.

Upon seeing this, Hama allowed them into the hall much to Aragorn's confusion but Boromir told him to just go with the flow and so he did.

At the end of the hall which they had now entered sat a man on a throne. He was very old with white hair but looked as though he had been a mighty warrior in his day. At the feet of the king sat another man. This one had oily black hair, sallow skin and wore a self-satisfied expression.

'Why should I welcome you, Gandalf Stormcrow?' asked the king.

'A just question, my liege,' said the other man in a voice as oily as his hair. 'Late is the hour when this conjuror chooses to appear, more likely to seek aid than to bring it.'

As he said this, he advanced towards Gandalf and the others. Charlotte stepped out from behind Legolas so that Gríma could see who it was.

'Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth, Gríma,' Charlotte snarled.

'Don't do anything stupid,' Legolas said, just loud enough for Charlotte to hear.

Charlotte ignored him in favour of terrorising Gríma.

'I've never known Charlotte to be so vindictive,' whispered Boromir. 'This guy must have done something really terrible. Do you know what?'

'No,' answered Legolas. 'But I suspect Alanna had something to do with it and Alanna is somehow influencing Charlotte's actions right now. I'd like to find out what this guy did even more than you would.'

Gríma took one look at Charlotte and looked scared for an instant before his fear was replaced by an evil grin.

'Why, if it isn't the pretty princess descending from on high to mingle with the commoners,' he said.

'Oh put a sock in it, slippery git,' came Charlotte's vindictive response.

'Oh, temper, temper!'

'Don't do it, Charlie,' Legolas said almost to himself. 'Please don't do what I know you are about to do. Arg! She did it.'

As Legolas was saying this, Charlotte pounced on Gríma. It took six guards to drag her off him and she quickly escaped their clutches. She slipped her dagger from her boot and dived at Gríma again. Gríma expected something like this and grabbed hold of Charlotte's arm and twisted it painfully behind her back. He swiftly grabbed her other hand, wrenched Charlotte's dagger from her grasp and pressed it against her throat. Legolas, Aragorn, Boromir and Gimli moved to help her but Gríma pressed the knife harder against Charlotte's neck.

'I thought I killed you once and was punished severely when it was discovered that you were alive. I do not intend to make the same mistake again,' hissed Gríma.

'Don't make me do this,' Charlotte said warningly. 'I don't want to have to resort to raw, ugly violence. It is not proper.'

This statement threw Gríma, making him loosen his grip on her and Charlotte took the opportunity to extract herself. She turned, with the intention of rescuing her dagger and almost got a slice across the cheek for her troubles.

_This time he has gone too far,_ Charlotte thought and made an executive decision about what to do next. Gríma lunged for her but missed and, like lightning, Charlotte gave Gríma a vicious and well-aimed kick right in the Casanovas. Every male present flinched but Gríma yelled and lay on the floor cursing.

'Language!' Charlotte exclaimed, suppressing a smile.

She turned to Legolas, Aragorn, Boromir and Gimli who were all seriously reevaluating their opinions of Charlotte as a girly, vain elf who had no idea of how to handle the real world.

'Well,' she said lightly. 'I think that's that done, don't you?'

'Look out!' cried Boromir.

Charlotte turned but too late. Something collided with the side of her head and she knew no more.

**Inside Alanna's head, just after Charlotte snarls at Gríma...**

Alanna could not believe her eyes and ears. Charlotte was being as vindictive, if not more, as Alanna would be in the same situation and Alanna was completely thrown off course by this new development. Alanna was even more shocked as events caused Charlotte to pounce on Gríma and even manage to draw her dagger before Gríma got hold of it and threatened Charlotte with it.

_What do I do now?_ came a plea for help from Charlotte.

'Say something that I wouldn't normally say,' instructed Alanna. 'He's so thick that he'll loosen his grip on you. When he does, get free and turn to face him. Rule One of single combat: Never turn your back on an enemy. Once you're facing him, kick him in the Casanovas and get away sharpish.'

_The Casanovas?_ inquired Charlotte. _Are you sure?_

'Definitely. He cheated in a duel and then tried to kill me...us...I don't know how one refers to oneself when one has MPD but just go, go, go!'

Charlotte thankfully did as Alanna said and when she kicked Gríma in the Casanovas, Alanna swore she saw Aragorn flinch.

_Yes, Aragorn,_ she thought. _Flinch. Now that you know what Charlie and I are capable of, you might want to be a little less patronising in future._

By the end of the fight, Alanna was almost regretting the trap she had set for Charlotte... Almost... But not quite. In any case, she did not have time to undo her trap as Gríma came at Charlotte from behind and hit her over the head.

**Edoras, now...**

Alanna came to to find Gimli sitting on Gríma's chest and Gandalf obscuring her view of the King Théoden. She scrambled to her feet, reclaimed her dagger from Gríma and returned it to her boot. Gandalf was attempting to extract Saruman from the king's mind and had already cast aside the grey traveling cloak that he had worn to hide his new status as a white wizard.

'If I go, Théoden dies,' hissed Saruman, using the king as his mouthpiece.

'You did not kill me, you will not kill him,' replied Gandalf.

'Rohan is MINE!'

With that Saruman caused the king to leap at Gandalf but this was too much for Saruman. Gandalf used his new powers to send Théoden back into his chair, freed from Saruman at last. Théoden slumped forward but was caught but a young woman with blonde hair before he hit the ground.

'I know your face,' said Théoden with wonder. 'Éowyn.'

Éowyn smiled at being recognised by the king. Théoden was given his sword again and, after that, spotted Grima. Alanna scowled at the thought that someone else might get to Gríma but thought that the king deserved the pleasure more than she did.

_Oh well,_ she thought. _I'll take it out on Saruman. He was the one who ordered Gríma to kill me after all._

Alanna stiffened as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked to her left and saw Legolas standing beside her. Memories of what Charlotte had done in Fangorn flooded Alanna's mind, drowning out all else. She backed away from Legolas.

'Allie?' Legolas asked. 'Where are you going?'

She did not answer but turned and fled the room. Before the double doors slammed behind her, Legolas distinctly heard a sob.

**A Note From Angela and Opal:**

**Angela: Oily hair, sallow skin, self-satisfied expression... Hmmm... Now where have I seen that before! *coughs in a way that sounds like "Snape"***

**Opal: *sighs* Well, it's true! that is how Grima looks! Anyways, for those who are unsure as to what the flippin' 'eck the Casanovas are, think about what gentlemen possess that women do not and you've got it. Yes, I am evil (I am not called Queen Opal Koboi for nothing) and I get even more evil in the next chapter, but Gríma had it coming to him.**

**Angela: For those of you who have already guessed what the Casanovas are, you may be wondering what Gríma did to make both Alanna and Charlotte so mad. We will tell you...**

**Opal: In the next chapter. Now, goodbye for now and see you all in the next chapter which will end on one of my evil cliffhangers! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA *gags***

**Angela: Opal, are you quite alright? You seem more insane than usual today.**

**Opal: You read the email I sent you. The one that contained this chapter, that is. I have a cold, I didn't sleep last night and I had a heap of sugar on my porridge this morning. You should know that that's a deadly combination.**

**Angela: Okay. I'm taking you up to your bedroom and locking you in. *drags Opal away* Oh, and sorry for the late posting, I was away on holiday and Opal couldn't make her way around with an instruction manual.**

**Opal: *appears randomly* HEY! I resent that remark!**

**Angela: Whatever! Goodbye readers, and remember to review!**


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine - Wargs On The Prowl

HighlySuspiciousAndMaybeInnocentAlthoughWeHaven'tC larifiedThatYet Bystander: Where's Opal?

Angela: *casually* I ate her.

HSAMIAWHCTY Bystander: *backs away slowly* Ewwwwwwwwww!

Opal: *appears dressed as a witch with green skin* *cackles evilly*

Angela: Hmmm... Green skin, evil cackle, witch outfit... *sarcasm* Where have I seen that before? *coughs in a way that sounds suspiciously like 'Wicked Witch Of The West'*

HSAMIAWHCTY Bystander: Riiiiiight... Well why is she here?

Opal: I am here, HighlySuspiciousAndMaybeInnocentAlthoughWeHaven'tC larifiedThatYet Bystander, to have Angela cease doing all the disclaimers and do one for myself.

HSAMIAWHCTY Bystander: *speaks very fast* Opal and Angela don't-

Opal: *knocks HSAMIAWHCTY Bystander out with a random wand* Now down to business. Angela-

Angela: Opal and I don't own Lord of the-

Opal: Oh don't you start. YOOOOU! SHALL NOT! DISCLAIM!

Angela: Help! Opal's gone crazy! *throws bucket of water onto Opal*

Opal: I'm meeeeelllttiing! I'm meeeeelllttiing!

Angela: *snickers* Right. Opal and I don't own Lord Of The Rings...or the Wizard Of Oz...but we do own Alanna and Charlotte.

_oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOo_

Alanna stopped and checked to make sure that no one was following her. She wanted to be alone. At last, after taking a long and circuitous route, she arrived at her destination: the stone balcony that ran along the back of Théoden's hall.

She sat down on the edge and looked out over the plains of Rohan, trying in vain to stop herself from crying. She smiled a little at the sound of a squeal and a crash echoing inside her head and at the realisation that Charlotte was now underneath a pile of pillows, blankets and books but other than that she remained silent and still.

_oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOo_

Two hours later, Alanna was so absorbed in her thoughts that she did not notice someone come around the rear of the hall until whoever-it-was sat down next to her. A glance to her right told her that it was Boromir.

_At least it isn't Legolas_, she thought.

'I never got the chance to thank you properly for saving my life and revealing your secret,' Boromir said after a few minutes of silence. 'So I will do that now. Thank you. I never expected that you would do that for me given what I said at the Council.'

'Unless it is an orc or some other evil creature, I'm not the type to see someone in danger and not try to help them,' Alanna said, glancing at Boromir. 'It's the way I am and I can't change that.'

Boromir was more than a little startled upon seeing Alanna's face. Tear tracks glittered on her cheeks and her eyes were a little red around the edges.

'Is it really that bad?' he asked quietly. 'What Charlie did? I mean, it's only her, isn't it? And, if you keep yourself from being knocked unconscious, we won't have a problem with her.'

'That's the thing. It's not just her. Sometime in the last three years I spent in Mirkwood, something changed between Legolas and me. Back then, I didn't know what it was. I was younger and more than a little naïve. But when I returned to Rivendell, I talked to Arwen about it and now I think I do know what changed. I knew Charlotte fancied him but I hoped that she wouldn't do anything this ridiculously stupid. I hoped in vain. How can I ever face him again?'

'Running away from your troubles won't help. You'll just have to face him and tell him how you feel but you shouldn't come out with it out of the blue. Wait for the opportune moment.'

'You make it sound so easy. I like to think I'm brave, but right now I think I'm a coward because I can't work up the courage to tell Legolas that I love him.'

'You are **not** a coward,' Boromir said firmly. 'You couldn't be further from being a coward but some things that might seem simple take the most courage to do.'

'You're so wise. Either that or you have a lot of common sense.'

'Ermmm... I think I might fall under the 'c' category there.'

'Come again?'

'Well, if 'a' is wise and 'b' is possessing a lot of common sense, then 'c' would be none of the above and I think that's where I fall.'

'What do you mean?'

'I'm not wise nor do I have common sense. If I did, I wouldn't have been made a very big fool of.'

'By who?'

'You. You've made me look a real idiot.

'How?'

'At the council. I thought that you shouldn't fight or even participate in this war because you are a girl. How wrong I was. I've seen you fight and you would shame many of Gondor's finest warriors. If it weren't for you, Aragorn would have died in the Mines and I would have died by the river. You have my sincerest apologies for what I said.'

'You are forgiven. I get it a lot. My sister, my brothers, my father, Aragorn, almost every male that I know. Except...'

'Except Legolas?'

'Yes. I think that's one of the reasons I like him. I can be myself around him and he lets me do that. I can be myself around few people but he is one of those few.'

Boromir decided to move off this topic as it seemed to be depressing Alanna even more.

'I never knew Charlie was such a good fighter,' he said.

Alanna laughed, something Boromir had never heard her do.

'She isn't normally but her temper is like mine. She and I have very wide boundaries but cross those boundaries and, by Jove, you'd better watch out. She possesses my memories, my temper and some of my skills but not my personality. As I wasn't in control of my own mind when Gríma appeared just then, I reminded Charlotte of what he did and how I felt about what he did and she became really furious. She needed a bit of help but we got there in the end. She's actually growing on me. Girly and vain prat she may be but a girl who can hold her own in single combat, even with a little help, is a girl to be commended.'

'And who knows,' Boromir said, standing up. 'She may have done you a favour. Wormtongue won't look at you the same way ever again.'

'Boromir?'

'Mmm?'

'This stays between us.'

'Strictly between us. I promise.'

With that he walked away leaving Alanna to consider her options.

_oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOo_

Boromir appeared around the corner of the hall, coming into view of the other members of the Fellowship.

'Any sign of her?' asked Legolas.

'Yes,' was Boromir's reply.

'Where?'

'Don't. She needs to be alone for a bit longer.'

'Why?'

'It is not my place to tell you that.'

Legolas muttered something that sounded like 'humans' and went off to try and find Alanna himself but stopped when Gandalf announced that he was going off to find Éomer and his band of riders.

'You lot will accompany Théoden to Helm's Deep,' Gandalf instructed. 'There, Saruman will launch his attack on Rohan and you five will-'

'Four,' interjected Legolas. 'Alanna is, under no circumstances, fighting in this battle.'

'I beg to differ,' came Alanna's voice behind them.

'What was all that about?' Aragorn asked her.

Alanna chose to ignore him and flounced off after Gandalf who had gone in the direction of the stables. Seeing as they weren't going to get anything out of Alanna or Boromir, the others decided to follow Gandalf to see him off and wish him luck.

_oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOo_

More than a few hours later, Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli, Boromir and Alanna were ready to accompany the occupants of Edoras to Helm's Deep. The remaining members of the Fellowship of the Ring rode near the front of the long line of people, near to where King Theoden was riding. Alanna was studiously avoiding riding near Legolas and was instead talking with Éowyn. Alanna had wanted to run as a wolf and leave her horse behind, but she could not reveal herself to all the humans, and so resigned herself to riding for a while.

The two girls soon discovered that they both intensely disliked the notion that girls could not fight and should not be smart and should not do any of the things that boys should do, et cetera, and spent half the day debating the finer points of swordfighting.

'So, what happened before with Gríma?' asked Éowyn after Alanna had been silent for a while. 'What did he do to you to make you so mad? And why does your voice sound different?'

Alanna sighed and called for Boromir, Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli to come over.

'I'm only going to say this once so listen carefully,' she said. 'Around about twelve years ago, Gandalf turned up in Mirkwood and told King Thranduil what he suspected about Saruman. I was walking past and accidentally overheard the two of them talking. I decided to try and confirm Gandalf's suspicions for him and 'disappeared' to Isengard. I did manage to confirm that Saruman was out to get what Gandalf thought he was out to get but Gríma caught me snooping around. I challenged him to a duel to give myself the opportunity to escape but he did the worst thing one can do in a duel.'

'Which was?' asked Gimli.

'Let me guess,' said Legolas. 'He cheated?'

Alanna nodded.

'Cowardly fool. I'm surprised that even he stooped as low as cheating in a duel. First moral rule of duelling: Don't cheat. Ever. He said he needed a break for three minutes and I let him on the condition that he didn't go out of my sight.'

'But he double-crossed you?' guessed Boromir.

Another nod.

'He waited until I turned away from him. It was only for two seconds but he took the opportunity to incapacitate me and tie me up. He then took me to Saruman who gave him orders to kill me in a way that looked like it was an accident. Gríma decided to try and drown me in the River Isen. That didn't work and ended up with him being wetter than me. He looked like a drowned rat.'

'If he tried to drown you,' said Aragorn. 'Wouldn't it have been the other way around?'

'Not necessarily,' said Legolas. 'I'm guessing that he was foolishly near the water and you somehow managed to push him in while still tied up, am I correct?'

'You are,' Alanna continued. 'Well, more accurately, I made him see if the water was too cold. The imbecile actually did it and he fell in. That particular attempt was actually hilarious. Of course he then got really angry, forgot Saruman's orders and tried to poison me.'

'I'm guessing that really didn't work,' said Legolas. 'Because we all know that you are paranoid and have therefore made yourself immune to most of the more common poisons and some of the less common ones.'

'However did you guess?' Alanna asked sarcastically.

Legolas sighed.

'Allie, you need to stop being so paranoid,' he said. 'One of these days, it is going to get you into trouble. Being alert and on the lookout for enemies is great, but seeing potential enemies behind every tree and in every shadow isn't good. Anyway, continue with your, er… tale.'

'After that failed,' Alanna continued. 'He got permission from Saruman and took me right up to the top of the tower at Isengard. He cut the ropes binding me and then pushed me off.'

This last elicited gasps from Éowyn, Boromir, Aragorn and Gimli but it was more Alanna's nonchalant manner of saying such a dramatic thing that got the gasps.

'How did you survive that?!' Éowyn asked incredulously.

'Gríma made one mistake,' Legolas said unexpectedly. 'He removed Alanna's bonds.'

'You know me far too well,' Alanna said. 'And I'm not entirely sure if that's a good thing.'

'It's not like it would have affected me either,' Legolas yawned, making Alanna glare at him for interrupting her.

'That doesn't answer Éowyn's question,' said Boromir. 'I'm on the edge of my seat here!'

'Technically, it's a saddle,' Alanna said cheekily.

'That's not the point!' exclaimed Boromir. 'The point is, I am dyi… er… desperate to know what happened.'

'Oh fine then, impatient human,' Alanna said. 'Picture this. An enormous black four-sided tower that is impossible to climb. It has a platform at the top which has no guardrails on it. About two metres below the platform, on the sides of the tower, there are black spikes that jut out from the tower and then curve upwards. The spikes surround the tower and continue downwards for about ten metres and if you fell onto the sharp part of one… Well, let's just say that you wouldn't be worrying about the fall downwards anymore. But I digress. I, luckily, fell between two columns of spikes and managed to grab onto one of them. Gríma left to tell Saruman the good news as he reasoned that no one could survive a fall of the top of Isengard and he didn't see me grab one of the spikes and I climbed up to the top. I only came close to falling five or six times but, in the end, I was fine.'

'I'm not sure which is stranger,' said Éowyn. 'The fact that Saruman would be stupid enough to have someone like Gríma as a henchman or that you seem completely unfazed by all this.'

'You make that decision,' Alanna said, stifling a yawn. 'I think that's enough stories for one day. I'll answer the rest of your question tomorrow, Éowyn. It's getting dark.'

With that, Alanna fell silent making it quite clear that she was not in the mood for talking anymore.

_oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOo_

The next day was the day that the entire population of Edoras, along with a few others, were due to arrive at Helm's Deep. Alanna had been planning to continue her tale in the afternoon as she and Legolas had been drafted in as scouts for the morning but she never got the chance.

Around midday, Alanna heard something that sounded like distant barking dogs mixed with harsh battle cries. Immediately, she knew what it was and rode at full speed back to where Legolas was. Legolas saw her, knew something was wrong and readied his bow.

'Wargs!' Alanna yelled. 'We're under attack!'

Legolas nodded his understanding and Alanna shot past him in the direction of the others. Théoden rode forward, discovered what the problem was and sent Éowyn to lead the women and children on to Helm's Deep. All of the soldiers, along with Aragorn, Boromir, Alanna and a disgruntled Gimli, charged at the Wargs.

The Wargs were ragged black and brown wolves with iron collars and Orcs riding them like horses. The Wargs and Orcs were defeated but at the cost of more than half the soldiers who went to fight them. After the battle, Boromir, Gimli and Legolas all noticed something. Alanna was missing.

'Alanna?' called Boromir.

'Allie?' called Legolas.

'Alanna?' called Gimli

As they were calling her name, the trio were wandering around the battlesite. By accident the three of them met up at the top of the cliff that marked the edge of a raging river.

'No sign of her anywhere,' said Boromir. 'But I did find that.'

He gestured behind him and the others saw Asfaloth standing a few yards away, his ears flat against his skull. Suddenly, Aragon ran up. He looked very shaken.

'Alanna...wolf...' he panted. 'Cliff...fell...'

'Tell us what happened,' growled Gimli worriedly, 'but slow down.'

'She's dead,' Aragon panted. 'She was a wolf and she fell off that cliff.'

Legolas walked over to the cliff and looked down. There was no sign of Alanna. Aragon spotted something glinting on the ground by his foot and picked it up. It was a silver necklace with a silver pendant shaped like a wolf with diamond eyes.

'No sign of her down there,' Boromir said after looking over the cliff.

'She's a good swimmer,' said Legolas hopefully. 'She might have…'

'She's dead, Legolas,' Aragorn interrupted, slightly harshly. 'There's no two ways about it.'

Legolas flinched at the 'd' word.

'But what if…'

'I know miracles follow that girl around like dogs follow a man with a bone,' Aragorn interrupted again, 'but I saw it happen. No one could take a fall of that magnitude and live to tell of it. Besides, I found this. Does it mean anything to you?'

He held up the necklace and Legolas went white.

'I gave that to Alanna five years ago,' he said in a strangled voice. 'That she's lost it… No. It's to horrible to even think about. What am I going to tell Elrond? My father? The twins? Arwen?'

'Relax,' Aragorn said. 'A) Arwen intensely dislikes her sister so you needn't bother with her and B) You're hyperventilating. You're going to pass out if you don't relax.'

'How can I relax, Aragorn? My best friend is dead!'

'Either you relax or you get knocked out. Which will it be?'

'Neither,' moaned Legolas and promptly collapsed in a dead faint.

**A Note From Angela and Opal:**

**Opal: Yes yes yes. I am being really mean and evil to Alanna and Legolas. Alanna because falling off a cliff to your death in a raging river isn't all that pleasant…**

**Angela: *sarcasm* No really. I hadn't noticed.**

**Opal: Shut up. Now where was I? Oh yes! And Legolas because… well...**

**Syletah: Tell us!**

**Opal: It's a secret.**

**Syletah: Why?**

**Opal: Because secrets are fun, but it won't be a secret if I tell you.**

**Angela: I know what it is! I know what it is!**

**Opal: Oh be quiet. Oh, and we are terribly sorry for not posting last Friday. There were some...ahem...hiccups in the posting system. *glares at Angela* But, as a "sorry" present... two chapters at once!Now I will say **_**au revoir**_** from Angela and I and see you in Chapter 10! **


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten- The Siege of Helm's Deep**

Draxie: *skips around and around Opal's bedroom* *falls into random portal and appears in Middle Earth in front of Legolas and Alanna* Hello, are you Alanna and Legolas?

Legolas: Yes.

Alanna: No.

Legolas: I say we are.

Alanna: Hel-lo, I'm Charlotte, remember? Alanna walked into a tree.

Legolas: Oh, yeah. Oops.

Draxie: So are you Legolas and Alanna or not?

Legolas: I am Legolas and the girl is Charlotte.

Draxie: Errrr... Now I'm confused. I thought Miss Opal added a character called Alanna. She never said anything about someone called Charlotte.

Charlotte: She DIDN'T! WHAT! How dare she! *stalks off to find Opal*

Legolas: Wait, Charlotte! Come back! *runs off after her leaving Draxie stranded in the middle of nowhere*

Draxie: *chases Legolas* Hey! Don't leave me here!

Legolas: *reappears leading Charlotte* Now let's not forget that if Miss Opal dies then we can't go anywhere because she is the one writing this story. I wouldn't mind if you had the intention of giving her a long and lengthy lecture about this matter but going off to find Opal with murder in your eyes isn't a good idea. Imagine what she could do to you! Rocks could fall on your head, you could fall off a random cliff for no apparent reason... Oh wait, you've already done that... A dragon could come and do the stereotypical thing and carry off the beautiful maiden to be eaten, et cetera.

Charlotte: Beautiful maiden! You really think so?

Legolas: *regrets using that example* *sighs* Yes. *stops Charlotte trying to kiss him* Charlie, please. There are draxies present.

Draxie: How do I get back?

Legolas: Errrrrr... *pinches Charlotte on the back of the neck*

Charlotte: *slides to the ground*

Legolas: We'll find out in a minute.

Alanna: *stands up* What were we doing again?

Legolas: Working out how to get yonder draxie back to her home.

Alanna: Easy. We find a ring of magic mushrooms, run around it backwards three times and yell 'Your mother was a hampster and your father smelt of elderberries!'

Draxie: Really?

Alanna: No no no no no no no no no no no... Yes.

Draxie: Ermm... Which one is it?

Alanna: Oh wait, that's the one that takes you to Alagësia. We have to yell 'None shall pass!'

Legolas: *facepalm*

Draxie: Is she for real?

Legolas: 'Fraid so.

Draxie: *starts skipping around Alanna and Legolas* Can't I stay here a while? I've never been here before. _The seaweed is always greener_... *sings _Under The Sea_ from _The Little Mermaid_*

both grab draxie's arms, hogtie her and drag her to a ring of random magic mushrooms that is nearby. Place draxie in middle of ring making sure her bonds are secure

Alanna: *runs backwards around the ring three times* None shall pass!

Draxie: *reappears on top of the TV in Syletah's house still hogtied* *sees Syletah* Mfflle! (Uh-Oh!)

Syletah: MWAHAHAHAHA! I have now got the draxie in my custody already tied up! Now to do my experiments! *drags Draxie off into secret basement cum laboratory*

Draxie: MFFLLE! (HELP ME!)

Syletah: Before I experiment on this draxie, I would like to say one thing and one thing only. Angela and Opal do not own Lord Of The Rings but they do own Alanna and Charlotte. *closes door with evil laugh*

**Site of the Battle with the Wargs, two hours ago…**

Alanna surveyed the battle. She had managed to fight her way to the edge of the battle but her horse had run off when she turned into a wolf and was now nowhere to be seen. The fight seemed to be at a bit of a stalemate at the moment but the men of Rohan were slowly gaining the advantage.

Alanna was about to plunge back into the battle when something slammed into her from behind. She fell forward and landed badly on her right paw, spraining it and causing her to trip. She rolled to her feet and snarled at her attacker. The instant she was on her feet, the warg that had slammed into her attacked again, not giving her the chance to reclaim her balance. This time, Alanna dodged and thought it had missed her but soon discovered that her fur on the back of her neck had become entangled in the iron collar of the warg in question.

The warg was riderless and dragged its unwilling passenger all over the battlefield. All the while, Alanna was desperately trying to cut herself loose with her claws, but was unsuccessful. She was forced to change tack when she spotted a cliff directly in the path of the warg. With some difficulty she managed to slice at the warg's chest with her claws, but it was too late.

Alanna suppressed a howl as the, now dead, warg's momentum carried both of them over the cliff and they plummeted towards the river.

_I'm dead_, thought Alanna. _Unless… Insane idea time!_

Alanna was never quite sure exactly how she managed to execute her plan without executing herself but she managed it. It wasn't easy (she had to block out Charlotte's screams while carrying out her plan) but she managed it.

Alanna knew that hitting the water from her current height would be the same as falling onto stone unless she used something as a shield. As it so happened, a dead warg was just the right shield for the job.

She shifted back, and managed to get on top of the warg and, seconds later, both of them hit the water. Even with the warg as a shield, the impact when Alanna and the warg hit the water was sufficient to jolt Alanna free from the warg and into the water.

Alanna changed back into an elf and let the current drag her further downriver until the river reached a point where the cliffs on either side of it turned into pebbly shores. The saturated elf swam out of the current and onto the shore. Her last thought was of Legolas as she lost the battle to stay conscious.

**Helm's Deep, now...**

Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas and Gimli were a subdued bunch when they finally arrived at Helm's Deep. Legolas, having returned to consciousness, was pale and completely silent. Alanna's death had shocked all of them. She had been through some very dangerous situations and, more often than not, received some very serious injuries, but she had always survived. For her to die so suddenly was a blow to them all.

Éowyn came running up to the remaining soldiers when they arrived.

'So few,' she said when she noted how small the company was compared to what it had been when they charged the wargs. 'So few of you have returned.'

'Our people are safe,' said Théoden shortly. 'They have paid for it with many lives.'

'Including an elven one,' Boromir said just loud enough for Théoden and Éowyn to hear.

'Where's Alanna?' asked Éowyn.

'She didn't make it,' Aragorn said quietly. 'But don't even mention it when Legolas can hear. He's taking it harder than the rest of us.'

'Where is he then?'

Aragorn, Boromir and Gimli looked around to find that there was no sign of the elf. The threesome looked at each other.

'We should find him,' Boromir said.

The trio searched Helm's Deep from top to bottom and then again from bottom to top but they did not find Legolas until quite a while later…

**Somewhere in Rohan, one hour ago...**

Alanna regained consciousness to find herself looking up at three very familiar, and very unexpected, faces.

'Haldir? Elladan? Elrohir?' she asked, half of her mind thinking that she was hallucinating and the other half wondering what the flippin' 'eck Haldir and her brothers were doing in the middle of Rohan.

'What are you doing here?' Elrohir asked. 'You look like you've just been in a battle and then fallen off a cliff into a river!'

'Good guess,' Alanna moaned trying to sit up using only one hand.

'We elves like guessing games,' Elladan stated.

'That was just another interesting fact about elves,' added Elrohir.

'Will you two quit it with the interesting facts?' Alanna said, weakly. 'But, more to the point, what are you doing here?'

'According to Galadriel, there's an overly large army of Uruk-Hai marching to Helm's Deep as we speak,' said Haldir. 'We are going to help the men of Rohan defeat them. It was just plain luck that we happened to be going this way and found you.'

'Just the three of you?!' Alanna asked incredulously. 'Oh, no. I see now.'

Alanna had just spotted the army of several hundred elven archers assembled behind the three boys. Elladan and Elrohir helped Alanna to her feet.

'We got very worried when I found your horse wandering around somewhere near here,' Haldir said. 'We feared something terrible had happened to you. Lindir!'

One of the elves came forward and saluted.

'Yessir?' he asked.

'Fetch Alanna's horse, lieutenant,' Haldir instructed.

'Yessir, right-o sir, right away sir.'

'Something terrible almost did happen,' Alanna said wincing as her wrist twinged. 'But I'm not going to tell you about it. For now, I am going to do this.'

Haldir did not have time to duck and so got a stinging slap across the cheek.

'OW! What was that for?!' he cried.

'That was for what you said when I left Lothlórien. And there's more where that came from so don't push your luck.'

'Fair enough,' said Haldir. 'Now are we going to stand here gossiping all day or are we going to get going?'

'We're going to get going and I'm going to take out my annoyance at Saruman, Gríma Wormtongue and the world in general on these Uruk-Hai.'

Haldir produced a bandage from somewhere and bound Alanna's sprained wrist before helping her up onto Asfaloth. The army then marched off in the direction of Helm's Deep.

**Helm's Deep, three hours later**

A horn echoed through the fortress of Helm's Deep.

'That's not an orc horn,' Aragorn said to Boromir, Gimli and King Théoden. 'That's an elvish horn if ever I heard one.'

The four of them were discussing battle plans and tactics in Théoden's throne room but then rushed outside to see what was going on. The gates of the fortress opened and in came Haldir, Elladan, Elrohir and the accompanying army of elven archers but that wasn't what astonished Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli and Théoden the most.

There riding at the head of the army was the last person they had expected to see. Alanna. Aragorn's jaw dropped.

'I saw… We thought you were dead!' he said to Alanna as she slid off her horse.

'No,' she replied. 'Well, not yet at any rate. What with the upcoming siege and all, I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch.'

'We elves are very good at surviving,' Elladan put in helpfully.

'That was just another inter-'

'Don't you DARE come out with another interesting fact, Elrohir!' Alanna growled.

'Well, all we have to do now is find Legolas and tell him the good news,' said Boromir, choosing to ignore the twins. 'We've searched this place from top to bottom and we can't find him.'

'And when we finished searching it from top to bottom,' said Aragorn, 'we searched it again from bottom to top. I think he might be avoiding us.'

'We elves are good at hiding,' Elladan commented lightly.

'That was-' began Elrohir.

'DON'T SAY IT!' Alanna shrieked before turning to Boromir. ''Why would he be avoiding you?' asked Alanna.

'Maybe because he thought his best friend was dead,' said a voice behind Alanna.

Alanna whirled around and found herself face to face with Legolas.

_Come on, Alanna_, thought Boromir. _Now would be the opportune moment to tell him what you need to tell him._

Legolas wordlessly held something out to Alanna. She looked down and saw her necklace. Her eyes widened.

'I thought I lost it when I went over the cliff,' she said. 'Thank you.'

'No thanks are needed,' said Legolas hugging her. 'I'm just so glad that you're alive. Now, we need to get you to safety before the Uruk-Hai arrive.'

Alanna looked at him sharply.

'What makes you think I'm not fighting?'

'We elves are good at fight-' began Elladan.

'SHUT UP!' yelled Alanna.

'Look at you!' Legolas continued. 'You've got a sprained wrist and you've just fallen off a cliff and into a river! You're no use to us half dead, Alanna.'

'That's funny. I thought I was half alive.'

'This is no time for jokes! You're not fighting.'

'Yes I am.'

'No you're not.'

'Yes I am.'

'No you're not.'

'No I'm not.'

'Yes you are.'

'No I'm not.'

'Yes you are.'

'Oh fine. If you insist then I will fight.'

'I do insist. You go and get ready and- wait WHAT?!'

Aragorn and Boromir burst out laughing but fell silent when Legolas glared at them.

'It's not funny,' he growled. 'This is a serious matter and… Alanna get back here!'

Alanna had been trying to sneak off without Legolas noticing but this failed.

'Legolas,' she said switching to elvish. 'Six hundred men and elves against ten thousand orcs? They need all the help they can get.'

'I agree but you are in no fit state to be fighting. A) It's one o'clock in the morning and you haven't had much, if any, sleep since last night; b) you can't use your sword and c) you can't fire your bow, so how are you going to fight?'

'I can still use my bow and I can fight just as well with my left hand, thank **you**. And besides, remember the dragon saga?'

'Don't remind me of that ever again.'

'I didn't even notice that very, very large cut on my arm until a week later when I regained consciousness and saw the bandage. I saw it and thought "Holy cow! Where'd that come from?". I can deal with pain.'

'That's not the point! The point is… Oh fine. I acquiesce. You can fight. Knock yourself out.'

'Or rather, don't,' said Aragorn.

'What are those two talking about?' asked Théoden.

'They're bickering like siblings,' Aragorn muttered.

'I heard that,' Alanna and Legolas in unison.

'Elves,' Gimli grumbled.

'I heard that too,' the two elves said simultaneously.

'Now, now, children,' Aragorn said patronisingly. 'Let's not argue again.'

'Again with the patronising!' Legolas exclaimed. 'I'm older than you and don't you forget it!'

'I'm older than you, Alanna and Aragorn put together so stop arguing,' said Haldir. 'Anyone would think you three were siblings.'

'Well we're not, so kindly-' Legolas trailed off.

Haldir, Legolas and Alanna all looked at each other and swallowed.

'They're here,' murmured Alanna.

Legolas and Haldir ran off to assemble the elves on top of the wall. Boromir walked over to Alanna.

'If you were looking for the opportune moment,' he said softly. 'That was just it.'

Five minutes later, the elven archers had been placed on top of the outer wall of the fortress, the humans had been placed inside the keep and both races could see the full extent of the approaching army.

There were thousands upon thousands of Uruk-Hai. They were all clad in black armour and bore vicious looking spears among other weapons. Alanna came over to where Boromir, Legolas, Aragorn and a disgruntled Gimli were standing.

'Well, lass,' Gimli said to her. 'Whatever luck you live by, let's hope it lasts the night.'

Alanna's response was drowned out by a huge thunderclap. Lightning flashed and it started to rain very heavily.

'Fantastic,' muttered Legolas. 'Now they can see us better.'

'Gandalf will be here at dawn,' Alanna said. 'We just need to hold them off until then.'

'Easier said than done,' muttered Aragorn.

The orcs stopped marching about twenty yards from the outer wall of the fortress.

'What's happening out there?' asked Gimli who couldn't see over the top of the wall.

'Would you like me to describe it to you?' inquired Legolas. 'Or would you like me to find you a box?'

Gimli, Aragorn and Boromir laughed

'Archers to the ready!' yelled Alanna.

All archers, whether human or elven, obeyed her. One of the human archers accidentally fired and hit an orc.

'One down, nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine to go,' said Boromir.

The orcs, on seeing their fallen comrade, charged at the wall.

'Take your aim!' yelled Alanna. 'FIRE!'

A volley of arrows soared from the bows of the archers and the first three rows of orcs fell.

'Did they hit anything?' asked Gimli.

Gimli did not get a response as Alanna was yelling orders again.

'Fire at will!' she yelled.

Wave upon wave of orcs fell but the archers couldn't stop them from reaching the wall and beginning to raise ladders.

'Ladders!' yelled Aragorn unnecessarily.

'Yes thank you Aragorn,' said Legolas sharply. 'We had noticed.'

'Good!' cried Gimli. 'Now Boromir and I have a chance to catch up to Legolas.'

'Are you three having a competition?!' Alanna asked incredulously.

Elf, human and dwarf all looked at her as if to say, 'But of course!'. Alanna shook her head.

'Boys,' she muttered and drew her sword.

The first few orcs who climbed the ladders were repelled but there were to many for the defenders to stop completely. Some of the ladders got pushed down but again there were too many.

'Causeway!' Boromir yelled about two hours into the battle.

Everyone who wasn't preoccupied with defending themselves looked over to the causeway. A group of orcs had formed a phalanx, put their shields over their heads to defend themselves from arrows and were marching up the causeway. Their sides were unprotected and this was where Alanna ordered the elves to shoot. Two lines of orcs fell but that didn't stop the rest. As the defenders watched, a ripple passed through the group and, at the end closest to the gate, a huge battering ram appeared. The orcs began to ram the gate, unperturbed by the rocks and arrows pelting them from the side and above.

Théoden's voice floated across to the sensitive ears of Alanna and Legolas who were close to the keep.

'Is this it,' he said. 'Is this all you can conjure, Saruman?'

'Don't say that, Théoden,' Legolas muttered to Alanna. 'Don't **ever** say that. Whenever someone says that, something bad happens.'

The second he finished Aragorn tapped him on the shoulder. Legolas turned and Aragorn pointed out into the orc army. Running towards the wall was an orc who looked exactly the same as all the other orcs. The only exception was that he carried a torch that was sparking and fizzing like one of Gandalf's fireworks.

Legolas fired at the orc and managed to hit it with three arrows but the orc refused to die. In the seconds before it reached the wall, Alanna and Aragorn managed to get most of the defenders off a twenty foot long section of the wall above the orc's destination. The orc reached the wall and, too late, Alanna realised that Legolas was still directly above the orc's destination.

'LEGOLAS!' Alanna screamed.

Legolas looked up at her. Their eyes met and, a second later, the wall exploded.

**A Note From Angela And Opal:**

**Angela: NOOOOOO!**

**Opal: What? What?**

**Angela: Why do you always have to end chapters on the worst possible cliff hangers? Alanna fights a Ringwraith, a scream is heard and you end the chapter. Alanna goes off a cliff, you end the chapter. Now, the wall beneath Legolas has just exploded and you end the chapter. Why? Why? WHY? Why do you do this to us, Miss Opal?**

**Opal: I'll tell you later. For now, please review and tell us that we aren't wasting our time on this and I will say **_**do svidaniya**_** (that's Russian for goodbye) and thank you for reading! (no I do not speak Russian. There is this wonderful invention called Google Translate...) **


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven- Charlotte's Battle**

Syletah: *walks around bench which has Draxie tied to it in a stereotypical evil scientist's laboratory* I have discovered a new drink called 'coffee' but I have been concerned about its effects on my other subjects…

Draxie: *gulp*

Syletah: Drink this and we shall see…

Draxie: *nervously drinks a sip of coffee*

Syletah: Well?

Draxie: Not too bad. The taste isn't great but I can live with it.

Syletah: Well! If Draxie's aren't affected, then neither will I! *drinks rest of coffee*

Draxie: But you aren't a Drax- Too late..

Syletah: *laughs hyperactively, runs around and around laboratory and accidentally cuts Draxie's bonds* *laughs even more hyperactively*

Draxie: Can I go now?

Syletah: Ha ha ha ha ha! It's a Draxie!

Opal: *enters laboratory* *ducks to avoid flying test tube* What have I told you about coffee?! You'd think you'd have learnt your lesson, given what happened to me…

Syletah: Ha ha ha ha ha! It's you Arya!

Opal: *facepalm*

Draxie: You have a nickname, Miss Opal?

Opal: *double facepalm* No you idiot! Syletah has gone so hyper on the coffee she's confusing me with a character from Eragon. Draxie! Come with me. We will leave Syletah to her hyperness. *takes key to lab door*

exit Opal and Draxie

Draxie: *locks door*

Scratch: *comes running* What happened? I heard Syletah laughing manically. Are you two okay?

Opal: Syletah discovered coffee. 'Nuff said.

Scratch: Ah. Hang on a minute… What would happen if we gave coffee to Alanna?

Opal: DON'T! YOU! DARE!

Scratch: *runs away to try and find a way into Middle Earth*

Opal: *charges after Scratch*

Draxie: This will be incredibly boring and will waste another five seconds of your time but Angela and Opal don't own Lord Of The Rings but they do own Alanna and Charlotte. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go back into Syletah's lab to arrange a cup of coffee for a friend…

_oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOo_

**Helm's Deep, now...**

Alanna and Aragorn were close enough to the blast to be thrown backwards Aragorn, who had been a few feet behind Alanna stopped before the wall of the keep, missing it by inches.

Alanna was not so fortunate. She was thrown head over heels by the force of the blast. Lightning flashed and she thought she saw a golden eagle soaring through the skies but then she hit the wall. Pain shot through her head and everything went black.

_oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOo_

**Fifteen minutes later...**

Charlotte regained consciousness, cautiously opened her eyes, sat up and looked around. Laid out before her was the embodiment of chaos. There were orcs everywhere. They had not yet breached the keep but the defenders who had not already retreated to the keep would soon be overwhelmed.

Charlotte had the option of fight or flight. She chose the second option and bolted. She found a secluded place in just the right spot for someone to observe the gate of Helm's Deep and most of the rest of the fortress without being seen themselves.

Suddenly, memories of what had taken place seconds before Alanna hit the wall flooded both of their minds.

'No,' Charlotte breathed. 'No! He can't be dead, he just can't!'

Charlotte would have promptly burst into tears loud enough for any orc to hear and find them had Alanna not intervened.

_You do realise, don't you that he's just down there, fighting. I think that might count as not being dead._

'Where is he? I can't see him.'

_He's near Haldir. Can you spot Haldir? He's the one in the red cloak, beside Elladan or Elrohir (not sure which)... Who's about to be stabbed by an orc! Charlotte, quick! Do something!_

Charlotte acted without thinking. That is to say, Alanna did the thinking for her. Charlotte turned into her shadow-cat form and bolted into the nearest shadow emerging from a shadow close enough to Haldir for her to pounce on the orc and give it something else to think about for a few moments.

Haldir heard a very loud caterwauling noise behind him and turned around to see possibly the silliest situation that an orc had been in in the history of Middle Earth or would be in for the rest of eternity.

An orc was staggering around behind him with a small tortoiseshell cat clinging to its head. Haldir put the orc out of its misery and then saw the cat turn into a very shaken looking (and slightly out of breath) Charlotte.

'I think,' she panted, slightly dazed, 'that that was the most Alanna-like thing that I have ever done.'

'I think,' said Haldir, 'that you just saved my life.'

Charlotte was still very dazed when Haldir heard the cry of 'Fall back to the keep!'. Haldir made an executive decision and he and Elrohir, who was closest, half-carried Charlotte back to the keep.

_oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO oOoOoOo_

When they got there, however, they discovered that the gate was in a bad way. An hour's relentless hammering from the orcs' battering ram meant that the gate was very close to breaking. Aragorn, Gimli, Boromir, Legolas and Elladan were all safely in the keep along with the remaining three-quarters of Haldir's army. Aragorn and Gimli were at the gate when Haldir, Elrohir and Charlotte joined them.

'How long do you need to fix the gate?' Aragorn asked Théoden, who was also at the gate.

'As long as you can give me,' was Théoden's reply.

Aragorn and Gimli slipped out of a side door in the wall or the fortress. It was impractical for an army to get through and it opened outwards so they weren't in fear of letting orcs inside the fortress. There was a large gap between the ledge which granted access to the door and the causeway where the orcs were.

'Come on,' Gimli muttered to Aragorn. 'We can take 'em!'

'It's a long way,' Aragorn replied.

Gimli double checked the distance.

'Toss me,' he grudgingly grumbled.

'What!?'

'I cannot jump the distance, you'll have to toss me. But do me a favour. Don't tell the elf.'

'Out of interest,' hissed a female voice behind them, 'which one?'

'Both of you. Now let's get on with... Oh...'

Both boys turned around and saw Charlotte standing behind them, her sword held in her left hand. All Aragorn and Gimli could do was stare until Aragorn finally managed some words.

'What are you doing here?!' the ranger hissed. 'I thought Alanna was the fighter and you hated her for it!'

'Temporary truce,' Charlotte hissed back. 'And besides, while I'm stuck out here with no way to get to relative safety, I may as well do my bit to help. I possess Alanna's skills with a sword and, I'd rather it didn't come to this, but I can turn into a wolf, you know.'

'Good point, but...'

'Can we discuss this later? When there aren't a thousand odd orcs banging on the door over there?'

'Point taken.'

With that, Aragorn threw Gimli across the gap and then he and Charlotte leapt across the gap after him. The trio gave Théoden and his men enough time to get a lot of very sturdy beams across the hole made by the orcs but then Charlotte realised that there was a hole in their plan. A hole approximately the same size as Smaug the dragon had been (i.e. the second biggest hole in the history of the ever ever).

She, Aragorn and Gimli were now stuck outside the (until recently) impenetrable fortress facing an army of thousands of orcs, with at least an hour to go before dawn and Gandalf's arrival and no way to get back into the fortress. This was, of course, unless they fancied leaping off the causeway and battling their way back in through the sizeable hole in the wall made by the explosion.

Charlotte looked up and, as if on cue, Legolas appeared on top of the keep wall above the causeway and threw a rope down, while, very wisely, in Charlotte's opinion, keeping hold of one end.

'Aragorn!' Charlotte yelled.

Aragorn saw the rope that Charlotte was holding, took the hint and soon he, Gimli and Charlotte were all being hoisted up to safety. They made it over the top of the wall where Charlotte was instantly surrounded by Haldir, Elladan, Elrohir and Legolas.

'Who are you and what have you done with Charlotte?' asked Legolas warily. 'You **were** knocked out were you not?'

Charlotte spent a few moments getting her breath back before answering Legolas.

'Can we concentrate on surviving for long enough to reach both of our next birthdays and not on why the heck I'm fighting? I don't really know the answer myself.'

'Fine,' Legolas sighed, rolling his eyes. 'But I'm going to pepper you with questions after this is over until you give me some answers.'

'If we survive that long.'

The second Charlotte finished speaking, there was a loud _twang _and a huge metal grappling hook landed next to Legolas and then dragged backwards and secured itself against the wall.

'My point exactly,' Charlotte continued.

Everyone else worked out what was going on in a matter of nanoseconds. Grappling hooks were being fired up to the top of the keep wall from huge crossbows. Even larger ladders, tall enough to breach the wall of the keep, were being hoisted up using ropes attached to the grappling hooks.

Legolas pulled out his bow, took careful aim and shot one of the ropes. It snapped in two and the ladder attached to it fell back to earth and killed all or most of the orcs clinging to it. Charlotte then spotted another two ladders being hoisted up.

_How do I use the bow again?_ she thought, silently praying that Alanna would answer.

_Pull out the bow first, then pull out an arrow and fit it to the string,_ Alanna's voice echoed through Charlotte's head._ If it isn't obvious which end goes onto the string I'd be very worried. Once you've done that, make sure that there isn't anyone on the way unless it's an orc. Then draw the string and the arrow back until the fletching tickles your cheek. Take your aim and FIRE!_

Charlotte did exactly what Alanna said and, to her surprise, the arrow hit one of the ropes drawing up one of the other ladders. The ladder fell down and resulted in only one ladder left and about twenty or thirty orcs being killed.

_I hit it!_ Charlotte thought excitedly.

_Well done!_ Alanna replied. _Now, do you want me to help you through the rest of the battle or do you think you can do it yourself?_

_Would you please keep watch for any immediate dangers?_

_Of course! My life is at stake too, you know._

Alanna and Charlotte quickly worked out a system. Charlotte used sword and bow to fight the orcs (but only when she really had to) and Alanna kept a look out for any orcs that were about to attack Charlotte or any of their friends. This system worked well for about an hour but then the orcs managed to break the gate.

'Retreat!' cried Théoden. 'RETREAT!'

There was a mad dash for the safety of the caves where the women and children were located. Charlotte was concentrating on doing the fighting while Alanna spotted Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli and Elrohir go in. She knew that Haldir and Elladan were just behind her but there was no sign of Legolas.

_He must already be in there,_ Charlotte said in her mind when Alanna relayed this observation to her.

_I hope you're right,_ Alanna answered. _I really hope you're- LEFT!_

Charlotte swung around to her left. Her sword sliced the orc that had been charging at her in two but it was too late. The orc's spear shaft hit her on the side of the head and Charlotte collapsed against Elladan.

**Inside the caves of Helm's Deep, fifteen minutes later...**

A crashing sound greeted Alanna when she awoke. She moaned and opened her eyes. Haldir, Elladan and Elrohir were all looking down at her with worried eyes.

'Oh good,' Elrohir said, relieved.

'You're awake,' Elladan finished. 'But...'

'We have some bad news.'

'What?' Alanna asked warily.

Her brothers looked at each other, wondering how best to break this news to their little sister. Seeing as the two immature elves weren't going to tell her, Haldir did it for them.

'Legolas isn't here and the door is shut,' he said, a touch of sadness creeping into his voice. 'I'm afraid we must assume that the worst has happened.'

All colour drained from Alanna's face.

'No,' Alanna breathed. 'No! Twice in one night. Please tell me it isn't true!'

Haldir bowed his head.

**Forty-five minutes later...**

The orcs were battering on the door into the caves and had been for the past hour. It would not last much longer, even with the multiple tables, benches and various other items of furniture piled against it. A ray of light, sunlight, not candlelight or the light provided by lightning, crept into the room from the small windows set high in the walls.

'Dawn,' murmured Alanna who had been sitting silently against the wall for the past 45 minutes.

'Mithrandir,' said Haldir who had been providing silent comfort to Alanna.

Théoden's voice then rang out across the hall from where he had been watching his men move every single item of furniture against the door.

'It is over,' he said hopelessly. 'What can men do against such reckless hate?'

'You said that this fortress would never fall while your men defend it,' Alanna said sharply. 'They still defend it! They have died defending it!'

Haldir chuckled to himself. Alanna was famous amongst the elves all over Middle Earth for disliking defeatist attitudes.

'The dawn approaches,' said Gimli.

'Ride out with me,' Aragorn urged Théoden. 'Ride out and meet them.'

'For death and glory,' Théoden agreed.

'For Rohan,' corrected Boromir. 'For your people.'

Théoden agreed with the two men of Gondor and ordered all the horses that were stabled indoors to be brought to him.

**Five minutes later...**

Théoden had ordered what remained of his riders to mount their horses and they were now all waiting for the charge to be sounded. Alanna, Aragorn and Boromir were at the head with Théoden while Gimli had been sent up the tallest tower to give the riders their signal. Haldir, the rest of the elven army and the remainder of the human army were behind the riders. Altogether, the cavalry numbered about one hundred and the infantry numbered around four hundred.

The sound of a very large and very deep horn echoed throughout the fortress.

'Forth Eorlingas!' yelled King Théoden and the army charged out of the ruined doors and into the midst of the orc army. They galloped down through the fortress, out the equally ruined gates, onto the causeway and out into the midst of the bulk of the army.

Alanna was just beginning to think that this charge was suicide when there came the sound of a whinny that rose above the clamour of the battle. Everyone stopped fighting and looked to the east.

Atop the steep ridge on the eastern side of the valley was the figure of a rider on a white horse.

'Gandalf!' cried several of the humans.

'Mithrandir!' cried several of the elves.

More than a few of the orcs laughed, thinking that one man would be no match for them, but there was a surprise in store. Behind Gandalf appeared an army of reinforcements with Éomer at the head. Gandalf led Éomer's men down the steep slope towards the orcs just as the sun appeared over the top of the ridge.

The orcs, blinded by the sunlight were unable to defend themselves from the oncoming riders. Most of them decided to turn tail and flee but this was easier said than done. The orcs had the option of trying to climb the cliffs on the west side of the valley, facing the reinforcements coming from the east or running out of the valley and into a forest that had mysteriously appeared at the entrance. The forest seemed the least dangerous so all of the retreating orcs ran into there. What the orcs didn't know and, in the interest of fairness, what the defenders didn't know either, was that, once all the orcs were inside the forest, the trees began to move and, apparently, killed all the remaining orcs.

'Well,' said Aragorn, riding up beside Alanna. 'I think that went well, don't you?'

'No,' she replied, voice devoid of emotion. 'It didn't go well. It didn't go well at all.'

Aragorn then remembered that Legolas was missing, presumed dead, and decided to keep silent. It was then that he noticed that Haldir, Elladan, Elrohir and Haldir's second-in-command weren't at the head of the elven army anymore.

'Where'd Haldir go?' Aragorn asked no one in particular.

Alanna looked around absently and saw Haldir running towards them from the direction of the fortress.

'Alanna!' he called. 'You'd better come quickly!'

**A Note From Angela and Opal**

**Opal: Right, first things first-**

**Angela: Second things never!**

**Opal: *ignores Angela* We are very sorry but our normal Friday posting day has sort of become non-existent. My excuse is that i have a terrible memory and ever since Angela went a way for the holidays our routine has been disrupted. From now on, though, Fridays will signify a new chapter (at least for the next few weeks). In a few weeks time, though, there will be no posting until the school holidays.**

**Angela: Why?**

**Opal: *sighs* Mid-year exams. I'm envisioning huge mountains of revision, about the size of Everest. After that, though, we get two weeks off to catch up on sleep!**

**Angela: Anyway, on another note, YOU AND YOUR EVIL CLIFFIES!**

**Opal: *sighs again* It's the way I write! There are certain places where it seems like a good place to end the chapter and this is one of them!**

**Angela: Two questions. One) What does Haldir want? Two) What's going to happen in the next chapter?**

**Opal: Answer One) You'll find out in the next chapter. Answer Two) You'll find out in the next chapter. But, I will reveal that they're going to go to Isengard and Alanna isn't going to be happy with Gríma OR Saruman.**

**Angela: What will she do?**

**Opal: *whispers answer in Angela's ear***

**Angela: You evil girl that's brilliant!**

**Opal: Right, readers, a note on the disclaimer. Yes, Syletah actually does go that hyper when given coffee (but she hasn't mistaken me for Arya...yet). See you in Chapter Twelve (if we're both still alive)!**

**Angela: And please review!**


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve- Three Little Words**

Draxie: *in security control room* *looks around for Miss Opal on security cameras* *into walkie talkie* Opal and Angela are writing the chapter in the study, over.

Scratch: *hiding under the couch in Opal's living room* On my way, over.

Draxie: Negative, negative! Angela is yet to place goods. Wait for my signal, over.

Opal's study

Angela: *in study with Opal* Tea or coffee, Miss Koboi?

Opal: Coffee, thanks. I'll continue with the chapter while you get it ready.

Angela: *leaves* *walks into kitchen and makes **three** cups of coffee* *walks back to study and places one of the cups on the hall table on the way there*

Opal's living room

Draxie: Agent Angela has placed the goods, Agent Scratch. You have the green light for Operation Scare-Opal-Out-Of-Her-Wits. Report back at regular intervals and steer clear of the basement. Syletah's there, over.

Scratch: Over and out. *crawls out from under sofa and sneaks towards hall table* *picks up coffee and sneaks off to Opal's bedroom* *into walkie talkie* Can you hack the door?

Draxie: *types furiously at computer* *Opal's door swings open* Done, over and out.

Scratch: *darts into Opal's room and into portal to Middle Earth* *emerges standing before Alanna and Legolas* Hello, Alanna! I have a present for you, courtesy of the Draxie, Angela and myself.

Alanna: That looks like coffee.

Legolas: If it IS coffee, then you are NOT having it! We both know what happened the last time you had coffee.

Scratch: It's not coffee, it's...

Alanna: Oh well in that case...! *drinks all of coffee* *laughs maniacally*

Legolas: That's coffee, you liar!

Scratch: I wasn't lying! It's coffee with extra chocolate in it!

Legolas: I will kill you, Scratch!

Alanna: *laughs even more maniacally* Yes! Hee hee hee! He will!

Legolas: Okay. Alanna, you are coming with me back to Mirkwood and I am locking you in one of the dungeons until the coffee wears off! Scratch, you are dead!

Scratch: *bolts away through the portal to Earth*

Alanna: *bolts after Scratch, laughing maniacally*

Legolas: Allie! No! *follows Alanna*

Legolas, Alanna and Scratch: *appears in Opal's study*

Alanna: *laughs maniacally...again*

Draxie: Oh! Hi, Alanna! Ummm... What's up?

Opal: What the holy Hades is going on?

Legolas: *growls* SOMEONE, not looking at anyone in particular SCRATCH, gave Alanna coffee.

Opal: *screams and then faints*

Angela: Mission accomplished!

Draxie: Now, this will again waste another five seconds of your time but Angela and the unconscious Opal do not own Lord Of The Rings but they do own Alanna and Charlotte.

Legolas: *knocks Alanna out cold* *draws sword* Hello! My name is Legolas Thranduillon! You gave coffee to Alanna! Prepare to DIE!

Draxie: PRINCESS BRIDE!

oOoOoOoOo

**[Warning: Kissing and fluffiness. (Three guesses who)]**

Alanna urged her horse into a gallop and followed Haldir with Aragorn, Boromir and Gimli hot on her heels. They followed Haldir back into Helm's Deep and into the keep where they found Haldir's lieutenant kneeling beside a motionless Legolas.

'Sir!' he cried. 'He's losing to much blood. He won't last much longer unless we can stop the bleeding.'

Alanna's eyes widened as she saw that on Legolas's right shoulder was an arrow wound. She slid off Asfaloth, dropped to her knees at Legolas's side and frantically undid her right bracer. The bandage that Haldir has used to bind her wrist was perfectly clean.

'Alanna!' exclaimed Haldir. 'That's genius!'

Alanna ignored him. She was white as a sheet and her hands were shaking as she bound Legolas's wound. After she was done, she produced a hip flask from somewhere, unscrewed the cap and waved it under Legolas's nose. The elf's eyes flew open and he sat bolt upright. Alanna visibly relaxed.

'What happened?' asked Legolas. 'Where'd the orcs go? And what in the world was that stuff?'

Legolas suddenly yelped and looked down at his injured shoulder.

'Now I really want to know what happened,' he continued.

'Slow down!' cried Haldir. 'You've just been seriously injured and if it weren't for Alanna then you'd probably be dead.'

Alanna's shoulders were shaking and she had her head in her hands. It took a few moments for the others to realise that she was crying.

'Allie? What's wrong?' asked Legolas.

Alanna looked up, tear tracks glittering on her cheeks in the dawn light.

'I thought I'd lost you,' she said in a strangled voice. 'I don't know what I'd do if that ever happened.'

_Tell him!_ Boromir mouthed at Alanna. _Tell him now! _

Alanna got the message.

'There's something I have to tell you,' she said at exactly the same time as Legolas said exactly the same thing.

'Ladies first,' said Legolas.

Alanna swallowed, took a deep breath then looked directly into Legolas's eyes.

'I love you,' she said all in a rush.

Aragorn, Gimli, Haldir and Lindir were all speechless with shock. Only Boromir was unsurprised. Once the others recovered from their shock (which only took a few seconds), they all looked at Legolas waiting to see what his reaction would be. They didn't have to wait long.

Legolas slipped a hand around behind Alanna's neck, leaned forward and kissed her soundly on the mouth. At that moment, Elladan and Elrohir came running up. The twins stopped dead when they spotted Alanna and Legolas and both of their faces soon sported identical looks of shock.

When Legolas and Alanna parted lips, Alanna was looking very dazed but with a small smile on her face. She blinked a few times, shook her head as if to clear it and then looked at Legolas.

'I'm 98, and I've been speechless a grand total of once,' Alanna said, quietly so that only Legolas could hear her. 'But what was it that you wanted to tell me?'

'The exact same thing,' Legolas said, a small smile on his face. 'Those three little words.'

Alanna giggled in a good natured sort of way. Legolas's smile grew wider.

'We elves are sentimental creatures,' said Elladan.

'That was just one of the many interesting facts about elves,' finished Elrohir.

'Enough of the interesting facts already!' Alanna exclaimed, though she was too happy to really care.

Everyone laughed.

'So what now?' asked Gimli. 'These two turtledoves are happy but I'd quite like to know what is going to happen now.'

To that, no one knew the answer but Gandalf came riding up on his steed, Shadowfax, and solved this newest riddle.

'Now,' he said, 'we go to Isengard to deal with Saruman. No, Alanna, you cannot kill him the minute we get there. We need him to talk first and then you may kill him if you so wish.'

Alanna sighed before turning to Haldir.

'Are you staying?' she asked him. 'Or will you and your army head back to Lothlórien?'

'I will lead my army back to Lothlórien,' was Haldir's answer. 'However, your brothers have elected to stay and fight. I will leave for Lothlórien when you lot leave for Isengard.'

**Two hours later...**

Théoden had assembled a small group of his men to come with him to Isengard. As well as Éomer and the five or so guards chosen by the king, Alanna, Legolas, Gimli, Boromir, Aragorn, Elladan, Elrohir and Gandalf had elected to go to Isengard as well. Haldir's army was assembled before the gates of Helm's Deep and now everyone was just waiting for Alanna to finish fussing over Legolas.

It was another five minutes before the two were finally ready, that is to say, before Legolas had had enough of Alanna's fussing, and Aragorn and Boromir then insisted that they all go their separate ways immediately.

'What he really means is "Let's all get going before Alanna finds something else to fuss about.",' Elladan translated for his little sister.

He instantly regretted it as Alanna cuffed him on the side of the head and treated him to her very best evil eye. He quailed and, as Théoden gave the signal to ride off, moved forward to ride beside his brother. Elladan whispered something in his brother's ear and Elrohir turned towards Alanna and opened his mouth to say something.

'ELROHIR!' Alanna yelled. 'Don't you DARE come out with another "interesting fact"!'

Elladan, Elrohir and Legolas all roared with laughter. The company of riders urged their horses into a gallop and sped north and west towards Isengard.

oOoOoOoOo

Soon enough, they were well on the way to Isengard and Théoden decreed that they would slow to a walk for a while. Once they slowed down, Aragorn, Boromir and Gimli, who was riding behind Boromir, rode back a bit so that they were riding next to Legolas and Alanna with Elladan and Elrohir a bit behind them and the five of them began to think aloud about all that had happened on their journey from Rivendell.

After a while, they all fell silent until Alanna directed a question at Boromir and Gimli.

'So how old do you think I really am?' she asked.

'Ooooh... Eighteen or nineteen?' guessed Boromir. 'But you are an elf so that's definitely wrong.'

'Wrong!' Alanna answered. 'Gimli?'

'Twenty or thereabouts,' guessed the dwarf.

'Not even close.'

'Younger or older?' asked Boromir.

'Older, if we're talking of age in years and not mental age.'

'Three thousand, five hundred and sixty-seven!' Legolas put in helpfully.

'YES!' Alanna shrieked.

'Huh?'

'You're completely wrong!'

Legolas rolled his eyes.

'So then how old **are** you?' asked Gimli.

'Ninety-eight,' Alanna stated.

'And not technically of age yet if we're speaking in elven terms,' said Legolas. 'I on the other hand...'

'You are only just one hundred in elven years so therefore only just eighteen in human years,' Alanna completed. 'And therefore only just of age.'

Legolas scowled, causing the others to laugh.

'We elves age very slowly,' put in Elladan from behind them, sensing an opportunity to stir his sister up.

'That was just another interesting-' Elrohir tried to finish.

'Elrohir,' Alanna said warningly. 'They do say that verbal insults hurt more than physical pain. They are of course wrong as you will shortly find out when my boot connects sharply and painfully with your-'

'**Thank** you, Alanna,' Legolas said sharply.

Alanna and Elladan giggled at the look on Elrohir's face when he worked out what would have been the ending of Alanna's sentence.

**Two days later...**

Théoden's company looked down on Isengard. To be very brief, it looked like a bomb had gone off, leaving the entire circle flooded with at least three feet of water and the tower in the middle untouched. All elves present spoke in outraged tones of the cruelty of Saruman as they saw what the wizard in question had done to the part of Fangorn Forest that had been right outside his front door. The trees had been cut down and the land burned leaving a barren wasteland. Alanna led the way down and as the riders approached the entrance to Isengard, they spotted two hobbits feasting, drinking and smoking their pipes on the ruined wall. They spotted the approaching company and on of them stood up.

'Welcome, my lords!' cried Merry. 'To Isengard!'

'You young rascals!' exclaimed Gimli. 'A merry hunt you've led us on and here we find you feasting and smoking!'

Gandalf shook his head and muttered something along the lines of "hobbits". Alanna, Legolas, Boromir and Aragorn all laughed.

'We are under orders from Treebeard,' stated Pippin. 'Who has taken over management of Isengard.'

'The salted pork is particularly good,' added Merry.

'Salted pork?' inquired Boromir and Gimli simultaneously, both of them eyeing off the pork in question.

'Humans,' muttered Legolas.

'I know what you mean,' Alanna agreed.

'We elves all agree on the subject of humans,' Elladan put in.

'Don't!' said Alanna sharply, forestalling Elrohir's inevitable "interesting fact". 'Now come on. If we don't hurry up, we'll be sitting here gossiping for the rest of eternity.'

'Aye,' said Pippin, having overheard the elves. ' "It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish" as Samwise Gamgee's father used to say.'

**Five minutes later**

The company arrived at the base of the steps that led up to the door of the tower of Isengard, Saruman's stronghold. There they were greeted by a sight that made the jaws of all elves present drop.

A giant tree was standing there. At least, it appeared to be a tree. It had a visible face and, most surprisingly, it spoke.

'Young master Gandalf,' it rumbled. 'I'm glad you've come. Wood and water, stock and stone, I can master but there is a wizard to manage here.'

'That is an Ent,' said Elladan, looking very awed.

'Well spotted,' Alanna shot back.

'You've done a very thorough job of this, Treebeard,' Gandalf observed. 'But now we must turn our attentions to the wizard within this tower.'

There was no sign of the wizard in question, nor did he appear in the next five minutes. Soon enough, Legolas became bored with waiting around and decided to exact revenge on Boromir and Gimli for tripping him into a creek.

'What's that over there?' he asked in mock surprise.

'Where?' inquired Boromir.

'There in the water,' replied Legolas, pointing.

Both Boromir and Gimli leaned dangerously far over the sides of their horse, trying to see what Legolas had supposedly seen. Boromir's foot accidentally slipped out of the stirrup and Legolas took this opportunity. He leaned across and gave both human and dwarf a sharp dig in the ribs. Both of them slid off their horse and into the water. Aragorn and the four elves roared with laughter.

Boromir and Gimli emerged from the water looking like drowned rats. This elicited more laughs from Aragorn and the elves and even got a chuckle out of Gandalf. Gimli grumbled something about elves into his beard.

'Now, now, Gimli,' Boromir said clambering back onto his horse and helping Gimli up as well. 'It's all perfectly justified. We did trip him into a stream, you know.'

'Exactly!' Legolas agreed.

'We elves will have our revenge, no matter the crime,' Elladan said with an evil grin.

'That was just another interesting fact about elves,' Elrohir said with an identical evil grin.

Alanna would have yelled at both of her brothers loud enough for all the orcs in Mordor to hear but Elladan had had the foresight to clamp his hand over her mouth. Alanna was forced to content herself with her best death stare.

Suddenly, a smooth voice spoke from the top of the tower, interrupting everything and causing Alanna to frown.

'You have fought many wars and slain many men Théoden King and made peace afterwards,' said the voice. 'Can we not have peace as we once did?'

Saruman walked into view on the top of his tower, revealing the mysterious voice to be his.

'We shall have peace,' said Théoden, causing everyone to stare at him. 'We shall have peace, when you hang from a gibbet for the sport of your own crows!'

Saruman frowned. 'Gibbets and crows,' he snarled. 'Dotard! Victory at Helm's Deep does not belong to you, Théoden Horsemaster.'

Alanna reached for an arrow but Legolas laid a hand on her arm and shook his head. Saruman then turned on Gandalf and Aragorn.

'And what do you want Gandalf Greyhame? The keys to Isengard? Or perhaps the very keys of Barad-Dûr itself? And this, _Isildur's_ heir? You cannot think that this Ranger from the North will ever be crowned king, Gandalf.'

'You shut your mouth,' Alanna called up angrily. 'Don't you dare talk about Aragorn that way.'

'I think it's high time that you were taught how to respect your superiors,' Saruman snapped haughtily.

'Oh! Hope you don't mean yourself!' Alanna shot back.

'Silence, girlie!'

'Who are you, to order me about, and call me "girlie"?!'

'I've heard enough insults from him,' Gimli grumbled then lowered his voice and spoke to Legolas. 'Shoot him. Stick an arrow in his neck.'

'Alanna,' Legolas said quietly. 'You heard what Gimli said.'

Alanna was simmering with anger as she drew an arrow from her quiver. She was about to shoot before Gandalf stopped her.

'Not yet,' he said. 'Wait.'

Alanna growled, sounding very much like the wolf that was her rethos form, and then looked up at Saruman and scowled. Everyone else looked up and saw Gríma Wormtongue standing beside Saruman.

'Gríma,' Théoden pleaded. 'Come down. Be free of him.'

'Free?' Saruman laughed. 'He will never be free.'

'No,' Gríma said defiantly.

This caused Saruman to strike him about the face, sending Gríma to the floor.

'You withdraw your guard,' said Saruman, turning back to Gandalf and the others, 'and I will tell you where your doom will be decided. I will not be held prisoner here!'

'No,' Alanna declared, drawing the string on her bow back until the feathers of the arrow tickled her cheek, 'you will die and be buried!'

At that moment, Gríma appeared behind Saruman and stabbed him twice in the back. Gandalf winced. There was a sudden _twang_ as Alanna switched targets and released the arrow. Her aim was true and her arrow pierced Gríma's heart. Both of them slid out of view and something round and black rolled off the edge of the tower. The object landed in the water with a splash.

Pippin slid into the water from where he had been riding behind Aragorn and splashed over to where the object had fallen. The curious hobbit picked up the whatever-it-was and stared at it. It was a large black sphere that was glowing faintly.

'Bless my bark,' said Treebeard.

'Peregrin Took!' said Gandalf sharply, riding forward so that he was beside Pippin. 'I'll take that my lad.'

Pippin reluctantly handed the sphere to Gandalf who wrapped it up in a black cloth.

'If that isn't a palantír,' Legolas said warily, 'then I'm one of the Nazgûl.'

'Palantír? As in, the seeing stones?' asked Elladan.

'No,' said Legolas sarcastically. 'Palantír as in the cats.'

Alanna giggled.

'The filth of Saruman is washing away,' stated Treebeard. 'Trees will come back to live here.'

'So now,' Alanna said once Treebeard was finished, 'I'm assuming we make the two day journey back to Edoras.'

'Definitely,' Gandalf affirmed. 'We should rest and then we need to work out what is happening at Minas Tirith. It is there that Sauron will strike first and hardest.'

All of them wheeled their horses about, left Isengard and sped off towards Edoras.

**A Note From Angela And Opal:**

**Angela: *squeals at the top of her lungs***

**Opal: Yes, yes I know, you are completely the opposite of Scratch and love reading romance and fluffiness, etc.**

**Angela: They finally kiss! *dances around hyperactively***

**Opal: *sighs* Alright, confess. How much sugar did you eat when you read the kiss? Confess! Confess! CONFESS!**

**Syletah: I confess!**

**Opal: Not you! Now confess, Angela, or I shall put you into the comfy chair!**

**Syletah: *worried* The comfy chair!**

**Opal: Shut up! And stop quoting the Spanish Inquisition!**

**Syletah: Nobody expects the Spanish- *falls silent due to Opal putting gaffer tape over her mouth***

**Opal: Confess, Angela! How much sugar did you eat?**

**Angela: Lots!**

**Opal: Right so it's up to me to do this. There is a bit of a story behind the disclaimer for this chapter. Our friend, Syletah, the one with gaffer tape over her mouth, had some coffee one morning and she went really really super hyper. I just HAD to write a disclaimer with her in it drinking coffee and then Scratch put forth the question "What would happen if we gave coffee to Alanna?". This was too good an idea to pass up and I absolutely HAD to do it. I had some help from the Draxie and we had just watched the Princess Bride so that is why Legolas says what he says at the end of it.**

**Angela: But what about the KISS!?**

**Opal: Okay, okay! We never know if Legolas gets a girlfriend so I took it upon myself to give him one.**

**Angela: And you have a crush on Legolas.**

**Opal: And I have a crush on... Wait, WHAT!?**

**Angela: *giggles* Alright readers, see you all in the next chapter and please please please review.**


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen- Goodbyes**

Angela: Now, when Opal comes, you must remember that under no circumstances are you to mention the word 'MacBeth'.

Scratch: Why.

Angela: Because she's very superstitious. She thinks that it brings her bad luck and the mention of it makes her very unhappy.

Scratch: So you won't be mentioning it either.

Angela: No, of course not!... Well... Not very often.

enter Opal

Angela: Morning, your Majesty. How are we today?

Opal: We have to study the Scottish Play next year.

Angela: Is that MacBeth?

Opal: Ahh! Hot potato, Off his drawers, Pluck to make amends! *yanks nose* Ow!

Scratch: What on earth was that?

Opal: I was exorcising the evil spirits brought on by the mention of the Scottish Play.

Angela: So are you saying that you have to do that every time I say MacBeth?

Opal Ahh! Hot potato, Off his drawers, Pluck to make amends! *yanks nose* Ow! Please stop saying the name! Always call it the Scottish Play!

Scratch: So you want us to call it the Scottish Play?

Opal: YES!

Angela: Not MacBeth.

Opal: Ahh! Hot potato, Off his drawers, Pluck to make amends! *yanks nose* Ow! Right! That's it! I'm ending this disclaimer before you can say it again. *places hand over Angela's mouth* Angela and I don't own Lord Of The Rings... Or Blackadder, but we do own Alanna and Charlotte. *removes hand from Angela's mouth*

Angela: MACBETH!

Opal: Ahh! *runs out of the classroom yelling:*Hot potato, Off his drawers, Pluck to make amends! *yanks nose* Ow!

Scratch: MACBETH!

Opal: Hot potato, Off his drawers, Pluck to make amends! *yanks nose* Ow! SHUT UP! This disclaimer is already too long!

oOoOoOoOo

King Théoden's company were halfway back to Edoras. It was almost dark and they were all sitting around a campfire. Elladan and Elrohir were plotting how best to wind Alanna up, Boromir and Gimli were plotting how best to get back at Legolas, Aragorn was talking with Théoden and Gandalf, Merry and Pippin were helping Boromir and Gimli and Alanna was dozing beside Legolas who was arguing with Éomer.

'I could beat you or Alanna in a swordfight any day,' Éomer boasted.

'I beg to differ,' Legolas retorted. 'Have you seen her fight?'

'Only as a wolf.'

'If you had seen her fight as an elf, you wouldn't be saying that you could beat her in a swordfight.'

'I still say that I could beat either of you.'

'Is that a challenge?' asked a voice from beside Legolas.

Éomer and Legolas looked towards the sound of the voice and discovered that Alanna had woken up. Éomer looked thoughtful for a few moments before he answered Alanna.

'Yes,' he said. 'Yes it is a challenge.'

'Right,' Alanna said decisively. 'You and me, one on one.'

'You're on,' Éomer agreed.

All eyes turned to them as elf and human stood up and drew their swords.

'You against Éo-,' began Legolas. 'This isn't fair!'

Elladan, Elrohir, Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli and Alanna all laughed, as they knew what Legolas was talking about, having seen Alanna duel Legolas before. Théoden gave the signal for Alanna and Éomer to begin their duel once the peals of laughter had subsided.

Elf and human began circling one another. Éomer swung his sword at Alanna but she parried with lightning speed. He swiped at her again and again but every single time her sword was there to stop his blow.

'You're amazing!' Éomer exclaimed after about two minutes.

'I've worked hard to become so,' Alanna replied nonchalantly.

'I have to admit,' Éomer said, 'you're better than me.'

Éomer, and, indeed, all humans present, were astonished at the speed with which Alanna attacked. It was only another minute or so before Éomer was defeated.

Alanna feinted to Éomer's left but then, so fast her sword was a silver blur, she whipped her blade around and slammed the flat of it into Éomer's right wrist. The blow wasn't hard enough to break Éomer's wrist but it was sufficient to make him drop his sword. Alanna then flicked her sword upwards so that it was pointing at Éomer's throat.

'Dead,' she said decisively.

'Told you so,' Legolas said, trying not to laugh at the ridiculous look on Éomer's face.

Elladan and Elrohir had passed the stage of trying not to laugh and were both rolling around on the ground, laughing their heads off.

'I cannot imagine the humiliation,' Legolas said in mock sympathy. 'You have just been beaten by someone who wasn't even trying.'

'I was trying!' Alanna said indignantly.

'No you weren't. If you had been, Éomer wouldn't have lasted five seconds. Now, Éomer, it's my turn to duel Alanna. This is personal now, Allie. I am determined to beat you if it kills me.'

'This'll be interesting,' Aragorn muttered to Boromir.

Éomer moved back to where he had been sitting before, still looking shocked and bewildered. Legolas drew his sword with his left hand and this time Elladan gave them the signal to start.

If the humans had been astonished, and slightly awed, by Alanna's duel with Éomer, that was nothing to what they witnessed now. The swords of the two elves were nothing more than silver blurs and Alanna and Legolas appeared to be pretty much equally matched as neither elf could gain an advantage over the other.

After fifteen minutes, the two of them were still at it. Finally, Legolas spotted a gap in Alanna's defences. He feinted to her right forcing her to turn away from him to dodge the blow. Once Alanna couldn't see Legolas any more, he swiped her legs out from underneath her with the flat of his blade. She fell back, accidentally letting go of her sword, and landed face up on the ground. Before she could get to her feet, she felt something sharp come to rest on her collarbone.

She looked up and saw Legolas standing beside her, his sword pointed at her neck. Her jaw dropped.

'Dead,' he said with an air of finality.

'Dead,' Alanna confirmed. 'It's taken you 56 years but you've finally done it! You have finally beaten me fair and square.'

'I'll make sure I don't get cocky,' Legolas said, helping Alanna to her feet.

Alanna laughed and kissed him on the cheek.

'How can you fight with that arrow wound?' asked Gimli in wonder.

'Trust me, Gimli,' Legolas answered. 'When you've had as many broken bones as I have, you learn to ignore pain after a while.'

'Of course,' said Elladan, 'it helps that you're an elf. We elves have very high pain thresholds, generally speaking.'

'That was just another interesting fact about elves,' said Elrohir happily.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

'I wonder how you kept breaking bones,' Alanna said sarcastically, after she had given both of her brothers a painful flick on their ears.

'Yes, well, that was when I was still trying to perfect the art of-'

Alanna cleared her throat.

'Ahem. Yes, well,' Legolas trailed off at the look on Alanna's face.

'It was a rhetorical question,' she said warningly.

'We elves-' began Elladan.

'Don't,' Alanna interrupted him. 'I **will** knock you out.'

Elladan wisely decided to shut up and Alanna continued. 'We never found out, did we,' she said. 'Who won the orc competition?'

'I got forty-three,' Gimli said proudly, confident that neither Legolas or Boromir could possibly have beaten him.

'Forty-four,' Boromir said smugly, dashing Gimli's hopes.

'Well that's unfortunate,' Legolas said.

'What'd you get?' asked Aragorn.

'Forty-six. Which, unless I am very much mistaken, means that I won.'

'That you did,' Boromir and Gimli said simultaneously and grudgingly.

Alanna laughed.

'Now,' she said. 'It's getting late and I suggest that we assign watches for the night and get some sleep.'

**Edoras, one day later...**

Éowyn was the first to see the company return. She ran down the steps of Théoden's hall and greeted them, eager to know what had happened. Merry and Pippin sneaked off to try and cause some mischief; Legolas, Boromir and Gimli followed them to try and prevent the inevitable mischief of the two hobbits; Gandalf, Théoden, Aragorn and Éomer vanished into the hall to talk battle tactics and Alanna was left to tell Éowyn about Saruman.

oOoOoOoOo

The two girls were sitting on the verandah that ran along the back of the hall and plotting how best to annoy Alanna's brothers when Aragorn came looking for them.

'Here you are!' he exclaimed when he located the two girls. 'I've been looking for you two for ages!'

'You have?' Alanna asked. 'What's the time?'

'Time for you two to come indoors.'

Both girls sighed, not having put the finishing touches on their plan, but followed Aragorn inside where they discovered that Théoden had arranged a celebration of the victory at Helm's Deep. Elladan, Elrohir, Éomer, Gimli, Boromir and Legolas were all gathered around an ale barrel when Alanna found them.

'No pauses,' said Éomer, handing a mug of ale each to Legolas and Gimli. 'No spills.'

'So it's a drinking game,' Legolas said.

'Last one standing wins,' Gimli confirmed.

'Legolas,' Alanna said, climbing up to sit on top of the barrel, 'I think it might be a good idea to accept your defeat now because I can tell that you are going to lose this. Badly.'

'Oh, I know,' Legolas replied.

'I am not going to envy you in the morning. I've seen what happens when humans drink too much, as have you, and I think that drinking too much has the same effect on elves.'

'If you're talking about the aftermath of the incident with the dragon and subsequent battle, then I agree with you. I wouldn't envy me tomorrow morning but Gimli probably will. I'd be willing to bet that he drinks twice as much.'

'Oi!' Gimli said indignantly.

Alanna and Legolas sniggered.

While Legolas and Gimli were preoccupied with their competition, Alanna spotted an opportunity. Elladan and Elrohir were both drinking what Alanna suspected was a bit too much and she began to form a plan. She slipped off the barrel and sneaked off to find Éowyn.

**Some time much later...**

Alanna and Éowyn were watching the drinking game and trying not to snigger every time they glanced at Alanna's brothers.

'How long will it take for them to notice?' Éowyn whispered to Alanna.

'I'll bet they won't notice until morning,' Alanna whispered back.

The two girls had taken advantage of the fact that Elladan and Elrohir weren't paying attention to their surroundings and had purloined and hidden their swords. Neither elf had noticed and this was the reason that Alanna and Éowyn were giggling.

Gimli then muttered something about dwarves and swimming. By now, there was a small pile of ale mugs in front of Legolas and another, rather larger, pile in front of Gimli.

'I'm beginning to feel something,' Legolas said suddenly. 'A slight tingle in my fingers. I think it's affecting me.'

'What'd I say,' Gimli slurred. 'He can't hold his liquor.'

The dwarf promptly passed out and slid backwards off his bench.

'Game over,' Legolas said.

Alanna laughed.

**Very early the next morning...**

Alanna pulled her pillow over her head but it didn't help. The snores emanating from Gimli were just too loud. Aragorn had disappeared out onto the balcony and everyone else was asleep with the exception of Alanna.

_Why does he have to snore so loudly?_ asked a voice inside Alanna's head.

_I don't know, Charlotte,_ Alanna sighed mentally. _Sometimes being an elf and having extra good hearing is a bad thing. I just wish he'd shut up so that I could get some sleep._

_That would be a good idea. I don't know why but I get the feeling that something big is going to happen tomorrow._

_You mean today. It's two in the morning._

_Whatever. Wait... What's that noise?_

Alanna removed her head from underneath the pillow and listened carefully, eyes closed so that she could concentrate on the noise. Suddenly a hushed voice, that Alanna recognised as belonging to Merry, sounded.

'What are you doing?' the hobbit asked.

Alanna decided that feigning sleep wasn't a good idea any more. She opened her eyes, sat up and discovered what Merry had been talking about. Pippin was up and appeared to be trying to swap the palantír in Gandalf's custody with a, mercifully empty, chamber pot.

'What do you think you're doing?!' Alanna hissed, but it was too late.

Pippin swiftly made the switch and knelt down to unwrap the palantír.

'Peregrin Took!' Alanna hissed angrily. 'Put it back!'

'Put it back this instant!' Merry added.

Pippin ignored them both and placed both hands on the palantír. Immediately. Alanna knew that something was horribly, horribly wrong. Pippin began writhing around on the floor clearly in pain. Alanna and Merry leapt into action. Both of them sprang out of bed and Merry woke Gandalf while Alanna yanked the palantír away from Pippin.

Pain shot through Alanna. The palantír fell from her hands and rolled away from her just before she collapsed...

**Ten minutes later...**

Alanna regained consciousness and found herself looking up into Legolas's blue eyes. Legolas visibly relaxed when he saw that Alanna was awake and helped her to sit up. Gandalf was questioning Pippin on what he had seen in the palantír and Pippin said something about a white tree being dead.

'What did you tell him of Frodo and the Ring?' Gandalf asked urgently.

Pippin's eyes widened...

**Five minutes later...**

Théoden, Éomer, Éowyn, Elladan, Elrohir, Boromir, Gimli, Legolas, Alanna, Aragorn, Merry, Pippin and Gandalf were all gathered in the main hall of Edoras. Elladan, Elrohir and Gimli were all looking very sorry for themselves. Alanna sighed when she remembered that they had all drunk a bit too much the night before and decided that, seeing as they were all awake, they might as well have breakfast.

While Gandalf was saying that they had been strangely fortunate and that Pippin had glimpsed Sauron's plans for Minas Tirith, Alanna stopped a passing servant and requested a few pots of tea, some cups and a stack of buttered toast. Legolas overheard her request and rolled his eyes at her.

'You and your tea and toast,' he muttered.

'It'll do you the power of good,' she snapped. 'And seeing as we are all awake and unlikely to go back to bed, we might as well have breakfast while we're at it.'

Gandalf interrupted her just as the tea and toast arrived.

'You've arranged breakfast?' asked the incredulous wizard.

'Oh good!' chorused the hobbits. 'We were just getting hungry!'

'You're always hungry,' Legolas shot back, though not unkindly.

Gandalf rolled his eyes at Alanna and continued while she dished out breakfast to everyone.

'Sauron will raze Minas Tirith to the ground before he sees a king return to the throne of men,' Gandalf said.

'I will go,' said Boromir.

'No,' Gandalf said firmly.

'They must be warned!' Boromir said his voice rising. 'Minas Tirith is my home!'

The man's voice was close to a shout when he finished.

'Boromir,' Elladan said, wincing slightly. 'Please don't shout. It hurts my head.'

'And mine,' Elrohir added.

'We elves do get very sore heads after drinking too much,' said Elladan.

'That was-' Elrohir began but instantly regretted it.

'ELROHIR!' Alanna roared.

Both of her brothers clamped their hands over their ears giving Alanna a reason to laugh evilly.

Elladan reached for his sword, intent on knocking his sister out before she could yell at them again but it wasn't there. He looked down and saw an empty space that had, previously, been occupied by his sword. Elladan then noticed that Elrohir's sword was missing as well. It took him almost two minutes to work it out as his brain wasn't quite awake yet.

'Alright, sis,' he sighed. 'What have you and, I suspect, Éowyn done with our swords?'

'Who, us?' Éowyn and Alanna asked innocently.

'Yes. You.'

Éowyn and Alanna adopted identical looks of mock offence.

'How dare you insinuate such a thing, sir!' Éowyn said indignantly.

'Where are they?' Elrohir asked, having reached the end of his tether.

Both girls glanced at each other and giggled.

'They are in an undisclosed location,' Alanna began.

'Somewhere in Edoras,' Éowyn continued.

'Where?' Elladan and Elrohir asked simultaneously.

'On the roof,' Alanna and Éowyn chorused.

'What?!' Legolas exclaimed. 'How'd you get up there?'

'It's very easy,' Éowyn replied. 'I discovered how ages ago. All you have to do is climb up into the rafters indoors and get out of the hole in the roof that lets the smoke from the fire out.'

'How you do that is up to you,' Alanna added. 'But seventy odd years of climbing trees almost every day does help.'

'If we might continue?' Gandalf asked impatiently.

The elves assumed silence and Gandalf continued.

'Gondor will be warned. I ride for Minas Tirith. And I won't be going alone.'

Here Gandalf looked pointedly at Alanna and Pippin.

'Oh no,' said Legolas. 'I am not letting Alanna out of my sight. I find that it's better for her to be somewhere where I can keep an eye on her.'

'Why do you want me to go?' Alanna asked cautiously.

'Lord Denethor will not listen to me,' Gandalf answered. 'He believes that I am a herald of woe and will not take any advice that I give him.'

'And what makes you think he'll listen to me? I'm a girl and you know how Boromir started out. What makes you think that Denethor will be any different?'

'You'll be safe in Minas Tirith,' Gandalf said choosing not to answer Alanna's question. 'And Denethor might listen to you because you're Lord Elrond's daughter.'

Alanna glanced at Legolas. Indecisiveness was written all over his face and Charlotte told Alanna exactly what he was thinking.

_On the one hand,_ she said, _he wants you to be safe. But on the other hand, he doesn't want to let you go._

_Yes, thank you, Charlotte, _Alanna thought.

Legolas turned towards her. 'Allie, I-' he began.

'I know, I know,' Alanna replied. 'I'll be safe in Minas Tirith, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And you're probably right. Unless Denethor loses his head and decides to try and kill me then I think I probably will be safe.'

'Right up to the point when you decide that you're bored and sneak out somehow to join in the fighting.'

Everyone laughed at that but Pippin could see that Alanna's good humour was forced. Both hobbits could see that Alanna did **not** want to go and began to wonder if something had changed between Alanna and Legolas as, instead of actively trying to get Alanna to safety, Legolas was now unsure about whether she wanted her to be safe in Minas Tirith or fighting by his side.

'It's for the best,' Alanna sighed.

'Wait,' Elladan asked. 'Will you get our swords back for us?'

'No,' Alanna and Éowyn chorused.

'It's your punishment for drinking too much last night,' Alanna continued.

'The headache isn't enough?' Elrohir asked.

'NO!' Alanna and Éowyn said firmly and a little too loudly.

Elladan, Elrohir and Gimli clapped their hands over their ears.

**Half an hour later...**

'Of all the inquisitive hobbits,' Gandalf said, as he marched down to the stables of Edoras, closely followed by Pippin and Merry. 'You are the worst, Peregrin Took.'

'Where are we going?' Pippin asked Merry.

'Why did you look?' asked Merry, a hint of anger in his voice. 'Why do you always have to look?'

'I'm sorry, alright! I won't do it again.'

'Don't you understand?' Merry lowered his voice. 'The enemy thinks you have the Ring. They've got to get you out of here!'

With that, Merry turned on his heel and followed Gandalf into the stables.

oOoOoOoOo

Once Pippin was mounted on Shadowfax, Gandalf noticed something. Namely, the absence of Alanna and Legolas. All other members of the Fellowship minus Frodo and Sam but with the additions of Elladan and Elrohir were there but Alanna and Legolas were not.

'Where is that girl?' Gandalf sighed exasperatedly.

'When last I saw her,' Boromir said, a mischievous grin creeping onto his face, 'she was saying a thoroughly non-verbal goodbye to Legolas.'

'Thoroughly non-verbal?' Merry and Pippin asked cautiously.

'Meaning she's kissing him like there's no tomorrow,' Aragorn translated, causing the two hobbits' jaws to drop.

'You're one to talk,' came a voice from the door. 'Don't think I haven't seen you and my sister.'

Everyone turned to see Alanna at the door. She walked into the stables, closely followed by Legolas and turned into the grey and black wolf that was her _rethos_ form. Legolas cleared his throat and she tilted her head as if to ask "What?".

'You will ride your horse,' Legolas ordered. 'It's a three day journey to Minas Tirith as the Nazgûl flies and I'll not have you running all that way even if you could keep up with Shadowfax.'

Alanna changed back into an elf and sighed. Merry and Pippin both had their mouths open in comical "o"s of shock.

'I suppose you're right,' Alanna said grudgingly, then spotted the looks on the faces of the hobbits and sighed again. 'Oh, Legolas, you explain to Merry and Pip. Gandalf is impatient to go and when Gandalf gets impatient, bad things happen to those who make him impatient. Wait... How far was it to Minas Tirith?'

'Three days ride, as the Nazgûl flies,' answered Legolas. 'And you'd better hope you don't have one of those on your tail.'

'I'll miss you,' Alanna said sadly, once she was on her horse.

'As will I,' Legolas answered, kissing her hand. 'Now go, otherwise you never will.'

'Run, Shadowfax!' Gandalf cried. 'Show us the meaning of haste!'

With that, Shadowfax sped out of the stables and Alanna's stallion reared and followed. Elf, wizard and hobbit were now on their way into the unknown.

**A Note From Angela And Opal:**

**Opal: So this chapter has the drinking game in it (obviously). That scene was in the Extended Edition of Return Of The King and I HAD to add it in as it is hilarious. (YouTube: Legolas and Gimli drinking game", to see the original) This chapter also is the part in the film when Pippin looks in the palantír (no, not planter, stupid spellcheck) and goes off to Minas Tirith and I had to put that in because it is a very important part of the story. Also, I did want to have Legolas beat Alanna in a duel at some point and this appeared as the best place for it.**

**Angela: So there you have it. MacBeth!**

**Opal: Ahh! Hot potato, Off his drawers, Pluck to make amends! *yanks nose* OW! This is another disclaimer with a story behind it. I was watching an episode of Blackadder (for those who don't know, Blackadder is a British sitcom) with a friend of ours (MishFish, who will make an appearance in the next disclaimer) and there were two actors who did what I do whenever someone says MacBeth. I can't remember when we started, but MishFish and I started doing it too and so there you have the story of this disclaimer (YouTube: "Blackadder Don't mention Macbeth")**

**Angela: MacBeth!**

**Opal: *covers ears* I'm not listening! I'm not listening!**

**Angela: *laughs***


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen- Minas Tirith**

MishFish: What have you done with Opal?

Angela: I don't know. She might be trying to get into Middle Earth... Again. MishFish: Why would she do that?

Angela: I think she might have a crush on Legolas. At every mention of his name she goes all dreamy eyed...

MishFish: Ah... *evil laugh* I might have a few words with her when she gets back.

enter Opal looking crushed

Opal: I can't work the portal.

MishFish: Why do you want to get back to Middle Earth?

Opal: I want to get on with the story and I can write it better from Middle Earth.

MishFish: So it wasn't just so you could attempt to snog Legolas?

Opal: Eh?

MishFish: *in sing-song voice* Someone has a cru-ush! Someone has a cru-ush! Someone has a cru-ush!

Opal: *with deceptive calmness* I do not have a crush on Legolas. And if I did and Alanna heard about it then this story would be over before it began. She'd kill me. She's the one with a crush, not me.

MishFish: You have got a crush and that is that.

Legolas: Come again?

Opal: *blushes* Er... Nothing, nothing.

MishFish: Opal has a huge crush on you. She won't admit it though.

Opal: *screeches* MISHFISH!

MishFish: *evil laugh*

Opal: *attacks MishFish with couch cushions*

Legolas: Whatever you do, don't tell Alanna or Charlotte. Either one would readily kill you. This is for being very nice to both of us in Chapter 12. *kisses Opal on the cheek* *disappears through portal*

Opal: *faints*

Angela: *to MishFish* Would you mind finishing this disclaimer? Opal won't wake up for a few hours and I should get her up to her bed.

MishFish: See ya! I'll pop round for coffee tomorrow, if that's okay. See how Opal I-have-a-huge-crush-on-Legolas Koboi is doing.

Angela: Ok. See you tomorrow!

exit Angela dragging Opal

MishFish: Angela and Opal don't own Lord of the Rings but they do own Thorn and Murtagh.

Angela's voice floats down the stairs

Angela: That's Alanna and Charlotte, you idiot!

MishFish: Oops! Wrong book. Angela and Opal own Alanna and Charlotte and not Thorn and Murtagh.

oOoOoOoOo

**Just outside Minas Tirith, three days later...**

'Woah,' Alanna said, when she, Gandalf and Pippin topped a ridge and saw Minas Tirith for the first time.

'Woah,' agreed Pippin.

'That,' Gandalf began, 'is Minas Tirith. The Tower of Guard.'

'It's...' Pippin stuttered, trying to find the right words.

'Massive?' Alanna suggested.

'Massive doesn't quite cut the mustard.'

'When you two are finished carrying on about how enormous the city is,' Gandalf said sharply. 'Perhaps we could go inside.'

Gandalf didn't wait around for an answer. At his word, Shadowfax charged off in the direction of Minas Tirith and Alanna was forced to follow.

oOoOoOoOo

Minas Tirith was, as Alanna rightly said, massive. The city had seven, tiered levels, all made out of white stone, and the entire city backed onto a mountain to boot. On the top level was a courtyard with a circle of grass on it, the only green in the city. In the middle of the circle was a shallow pool with a dead white tree beside it. The courtyard stretched the whole width of the city and ended in a huge cliff that only ended when it reached the bottom level.

It was on this, the top, level that the citadel, the residence of the Steward, was located and this was where Gandalf led Pippin and Alanna. They climbed the steps that led to the double doors of the citadel but Gandalf stopped before they entered and turned to Alanna and Pippin.

'Now,' the wizard said. 'You two must understand. Lord Denethor is not a King. He is a Steward and Boromir's father.'

'Ooh,' Alanna said sarcastically. 'I shall practice my curtsey.'

'Neither of you are to mention Frodo, or the Ring, for that matter,' Gandalf continued, ignoring Alanna. 'And say nothing of Aragorn either... Actually, it is best if neither of you say anything.'

Gandalf opened the doors and strode into the hall behind them, oblivious to the fact that Alanna was looking daggers at him.

'If looks could kill,' Pippin muttered to Alanna. 'You'd be pretty deadly.'

Alanna snickered.

'I know,' she whispered back. 'Legolas tells me almost every other day.'

The hall they had entered was, evidently, a throne room, of sorts. At the far end of it was a white throne with a fair few steps leading up to it. At the bottom of those stairs was another chair, this one black, and in it sat a man with silver hair.

_That must be Denethor,_ Alanna thought to herself.

_Be careful of him,_ Charlotte's voice echoed inside Alanna's head. _I wouldn't underestimate him. He'll be proud, like Boromir, and cunning._

_I'll keep that in mind, but how can you tell?_

_Intuition. Now I know what you're thinking, "Oh the entire notion of intuition is ridiculous and blah blah blah" but I can just tell, alright._

Gandalf's voice interrupted Charlotte's rant.

'Hail, Denethor, Son of Ecthelion,' he said, 'Lord and Steward of Gondor.'

The man in the chair did not respond. Alanna wondered whether he had gotten bored of sitting on a throne all day and dozed off. She certainly would have.

'I come with tidings in this dark hour,' Gandalf continued, 'and with counsel.'

'Perhaps you come to explain this, Mithrandir,' the man finally said, holding up a horn, cloven in two, that Alanna recognised as Boromir's. 'Perhaps you have come to explain why my son is dead.'

'Well,' Alanna began, cutting off Gandalf's answer that, doubtless, would have been less blunt and more tactful, 'the simple fact of the matter is, he **isn't** dead.'

Gandalf rolled his eyes. 'Perhaps you missed a few key lessons in tact,' he muttered to himself.

'What?' Denethor said incredulously. 'But his horn...'

'Was broken by a bunch of inconsiderate Uruk-Hai,' Alanna stated flatly. 'It accidentally got knocked into the Anduin river and must have floated all the way down here from Rauros Falls, leading you to believe that he was dead.'

Denethor was taken aback. No one had ever spoken to him in this manner before. But then he wondered if this strange girl was trying to get up his hopes, only to dash them all later. Nobody knew it, but this was the beginning of a whole mountain of problems for everyone, especially Denethor.

'I don't believe you,' he said defiantly.

Alanna shrugged.

'Your loss,' she said casually. 'Keep grieving for someone who isn't dead if you absolutely **must**, but no good will come of it, you mark my words.'

Denethor was about to give Alanna a cutting reply but Gandalf intervened. He moved to stand in front of Alanna and took over the conversation before things got nasty.

'As steward you are charged with the defence of this city,' Gandalf said as though nothing had happened. 'Where are Gondor's armies?'

'Where else?' Alanna asked airily. 'Up their sleeves.'

Pippin burst out laughing and Alanna sniggered before Gandalf rounded on the pair of them.

'Will you two kindly be silent?' he asked angrily.

'Sorry, sorry,' Alanna said, still giggling. 'I couldn't resist.'

Gandalf glared at the pair of the until they decided to shut up.

'Send word to Théoden of Rohan,' Gandalf said to Denethor. 'You are not alone in this war.'

Denethor's eyes narrowed.

'The eyes of the White Tower are not as blind as you suppose, Mithrandir,' he said icily. 'With your left hand you would use me as a shield against Mordor, and with your right you would seek to replace me. I know who rides with Théoden of Rohan. Oh yes, word has reached me of this Aragorn, Son of Arathorn and I tell you, I will not bow to this Ranger from the North!'

'You are not able to deny the return of the king, steward!' Gandalf snapped.

'The rule of Gondor is **mine**,' Denethor snarled, 'and no other's!'

'If you know of Aragorn,' Alanna couldn't help but wonder aloud, 'how come you still believe your son is dead?'

Before Denethor could answer, Gandalf stalked out of the hall and Pippin and Alanna decided to follow him as neither of them fancied being left alone with Denethor.

The two followed Gandalf almost to the edge of the cliff at the end of the courtyard.

'All has turned to vain ambition,' Gandalf said angrily. 'He would even use his unnecessary grief as a cloak. Oh, Alanna. Why did you have to go and make him angry?'

'It isn't exactly **my** fault that Denethor wants to believe that Boromir is dead,' Alanna snapped. 'I might also be doing it to annoy you for putting me into a situation where I could do nothing **but** come here, a million billion miles from Legolas. And, in my defence, you made him angrier than I did.'

'She's right, you know,' Pippin added, then looked at the sky where storm clouds were rolling towards them from Mordor. 'Look. A storm's brewing.'

'This is not natural,' Alanna said, glancing up. 'The orcs of Mordor have no love of sunlight so Sauron covers the face of the sun to help them on their march to war.'

'Well,' Pippin began. 'Minas Tirith. Lovely place. So where are we off to next?'

'Oh it's too late for that, Peregrin Took,' Gandalf said. 'Help must come to us now.'

The wizard glanced meaningfully up at the mountain behind Minas Tirith. There, one could just see a pillar of rock jutting upwards, separated from the rest of the mountain. Atop the pillar of rock was a very large stack of wood.

'That is the beacon of Minas Tirith,' Gandalf explained. 'The beacons are used for communication between Gondor and Rohan. That one must be lit if we are to rely on Théoden's help.'

'How do we light it then?' Alanna had to ask. 'Denethor certainly won't do it and I can't shoot it with a flaming arrow or anything. It's too high.'

'You must still be the one to light it.'

'How? I don't... Oh no. No. Just...no.'

'Please?'

'So you want me to climb up that awfully large cliff, light that stack of wood on fire and climb back down again.'

'Yes. And you must not be seen.'

'Just checking.'

With that, the elf transformed into a small tortoiseshell cat and slipped away.

**An hour later...**

Alanna was almost at the top of the cliff and had stopped for a breather.

_Mithrandir is insane!_ she thought. _He's even more insane than I am._

_And that is saying something,_ Charlotte's voice echoed. _By the way, do you know that that is the twentieth time you've thought that in the last hour?_

_I knew it was something like that. Now, this isn't as easy as it looks so I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't distract me._

Charlotte resumed silence and Alanna glanced up. To her frustration, there were none within her reach. However, there was a handhold just out of reach. If she jumped, she could get a hold of it.

_If I miss this,_ she thought, _I'm dead unless I can magically become a cat and slip into a shadow somewhere while in free-fall. Oh well, here goes!_

With that encouraging thought, Alanna sprang upwards. She _just_ managed to catch hold of the ledge with her fingertips. After a few seconds, the elf continued her ascent and was soon at the top.

_Now for the tricky bit,_ she thought.

_You mean the rest of it hasn't been!?_ Charlotte asked incredulously.

_Shut it you. I'm trying to concentrate on lighting a fire without being seen doing it._

Charlotte sniffed haughtily but spoke no more. Alanna carefully manoeuvred herself onto the top of the pile of wood, regardless of the splinters. She glanced at the guards guarding the beacon but, thankfully, they were too preoccupied with eating their lunch to notice an elf on top of the beacon.

Alanna reached up and grabbed the torch that conveniently hung from the roof of the structure that protected the beacon. She threw it onto the wood and it caught fire. Alanna then transformed into a cat and dived into the nearest shadow. She reappeared beside Gandalf and Pippin and resumed the form of an elf.

'Amon Dîn,' Gandalf breathed as another beacon was lit on top of a different mountain.

'Hope is kindled,' Alanna agreed, unaware that Denethor had seen her light the beacon.

oOoOoOoOo

**Edoras; six hours, twenty-seven minutes and fifteen seconds later...**

Aragorn was eating an early supper out of doors when he spotted that the beacon of Minas Tirith was on fire. He bolted inside the hall where Théoden and Éomer were talking battle tactics.

'The beacons of Minas Tirith are lit!' Aragorn cried. 'Gondor calls for aid.'

Everyone stopped what they were doing. Gimli and Boromir paused with forks halfway to their mouths, Legolas paused halfway through trying to convince Elladan and Elrohir **not** to murder their little sister for putting their swords on the roof and the map that Éomer had just unrolled sprang back into place. There was complete silence while everyone waited to see what Théoden would say.

'And Rohan will answer,' the king said finally. 'Muster the Rohirrim!'

He turned to Éomer.

'You have two days,' he continued. 'On the third, we ride for Gondor, and war.'

'The beacons are lit so soon?' Boromir asked. 'My father would never light them so quickly! He's to stubborn and proud. Although don't tell him I said that.'

Legolas smiled in an infuriatingly smug way.

'I suspect, Boromir,' he began in a voice that matched his smile perfectly, 'that your father had absolutely nothing to do with it.'

With that, the elf walked away towards the doors.

'Wait!' Boromir cried. Legolas paused.

'Do you think it could have been Alanna?' he continued curiously.

'Who else?' replied Legolas and disappeared outside.

oOoOoOoOo

**Minas Tirith, the next morning...**

Alanna was bored. Very bored. In fact, one could say that she was possibly the most bored person currently in Middle Earth. Charlotte was resting, Pippin and Gandalf were with Denethor and Alanna had nobody to talk to.

She had figuratively worn a hole in the stone courtyard from pacing about and she missed Legolas terribly. She made a list in her head of things that she wished would happen and how likely they were to happen.

One) Her _rethos_ form would miraculously change into something more along the lines of Legolas's because that would just be awesome.

_Impossible_, she thought regretfully. _Rethos forms don't change._

Two) Denethor would lose his marbles and do something strange.

_Highly likely. He can't have many marbles left if he still thinks Boromir's dead._

Three) Sauron's army would magically appear at Minas Tirith and start its attack.

_Hmm... Maybe soon. But not yet._

Or, four) Gandalf would find her something useful for her to do that did not involve going anywhere near Denethor.

_Stranger things have happened_, she thought.

In short, nothing exciting was going to happen in the foreseeable future. Alanna sighed wistfully and sat on the edge of the cliff, exactly what Gandalf had told her not to. She surveyed the surrounding land for an hour or so, thinking about the inevitable battle, before her gaze was drawn to some commotion at Osgiliath.

In its days of glory, Gondor had had three major cities. Minas Ithil, Osgiliath and Minas Anor. Minas Ithil had long been occupied by the enemy and was now called Minas Morgûl. Osgiliath, which was built on both sides of the Anduin River, had fallen into ruins. The East Bank of Osgiliath was in the hands of the enemy but the West Bank was still held by Denethor's other son, Faramir. That left Minas Anor, now known as Minas Tirith, as the last defence of Gondor. If that fell, Sauron could take over the rest of Middle Earth. Separating Minas Tirith and Osgiliath was a large expanse of grassy plains. These plains were called the Pelennor Fields.

While Minas Tirith was possibly the most important city in Gondor, it was Osgiliath that Alanna was concentrating on. She narrowed her eyes, realised what she was seeing and scrambled to her feet. The elf sprinted back towards the throne room, pausing only to call Shadowfax.

Denethor, Pippin and Gandalf looked around when Alanna threw open the doors and bolted in.

'What's wrong?' asked Gandalf. 'Alanna?'

'Nazgûl,' she said tersely. 'At Osgiliath. They have winged steeds now! Gandalf, the men there are riding back here and they'll all be killed if you don't do something!'

Gandalf did not question her and, mighty fast for someone his age, got up onto Shadowfax and galloped off. Alanna and Pippin could do nothing but watch from the courtyard as Gandalf rode out to meet the retreating men who were being attacked by the Nazgûl. The wizard lifted his staff and white light shone out of it. The Nazgûl screeched shrilly and flew away towards Osgiliath while the remaining men, plus one White Wizard, galloped towards Minas Tirith.

Alanna and Pippin ran down to meet them, leaving Denethor inside his hall. Alanna, who was somewhere between two and three feet taller than Pippin, spotted Gandalf first and dragged Pippin over in order to find out what had happened.

'Mithrandir,' said a man with red hair, evidently the leader of the men, 'they've taken the river and the West Bank. Osgiliath is overrun.'

'This,' Alanna said, alerting the two to her presence, 'not good. Denethor is **not** going to be happy with this.'

Gandalf sighed and both he and the stranger turned towards her.

'What?!' Alanna asked.

'You,' said Gandalf. 'Lord Denethor would be slightly less not happy if you hadn't infuriated him earlier.'

'Well,' Alanna snapped, 'if you had let me stay in Rohan then I wouldn't have infuriated him. Faramir, you might want to cover your ears while I say this-'

The man with red hair, Faramir, looked startled.

'How do you know my name?' he asked.

'You look like your brother,' Alanna answered, causing Faramir's jaw to drop. 'Now don't listen as I say this.'

She leant towards Gandalf and whispered in his ear.

'I suspect that Denethor is losing the plot. I would be wary of him.'

'How can you tell?' Gandalf asked.

'Intuition.'

'Charlotte has changed you,' Gandalf said, raising an eyebrow.

Deciding that that was all she was going to get out of the wizard, Alanna turned away from him. It was then that Faramir spotted Pippin.

'Faramir?' asked Gandalf, seeing the look on the man's face. 'This isn't the first Halfling to cross your path, is it.'

Faramir shook his head as Alanna turned around.

'You've seen Frodo and Sam?!' Pippin asked excitedly.

'Where?' Alanna asked sharply. 'When?'

'In Ithilien. Not two days ago,' Faramir said, getting off his horse.

'Where were they headed?' Alanna asked, sharply.

'They've taken the road to the Morgûl Vale.'

'And then the Pass of Cirith Ungol,' Alanna breathed, paling considerably. 'Not good, not good! Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!'

'Not to seem rude, but who exactly are you two?' asked Faramir.

'This is Peregrin Took, a Hobbit of the Shire,' Gandalf answered for Alanna.

Alanna sighed mentally and, while Faramir's attention was on Gandalf and Pippin, swiftly shifted into her shadow-cat _rethos_ form, selected a suitably absurd destination and dived into the nearest shadow, all in the space of a few seconds.

'And the girl is Alanna, the youngest daughter of Lord Elrond of Rivendell,' Gandalf continued, and then noticed that she wasn't there anymore. 'Who has disappeared. Again.'

'Does she do this often?' Faramir asked.

'She used to,' Gandalf sighed. 'I had hoped she'd grown out of it-'

'Ha,' came a derisive laugh from somewhere above, 'fat chance.'

'Oh please,' muttered Gandalf. 'Please tell me that she hasn't...'

'She has,' Pippin said, spying Alanna.

'Now I know what Legolas has to deal with.'

Gandalf and Faramir looked up. Alanna was perched on top of the, still open, gates into Minas Tirith. The men who were supposed to be closing the gate weren't sure what to do.

'Oh for goodness sake!' Gandalf cried. 'Will you get down from there.'

'Make me,' Alanna said, just to stir him up.

'Is she usually this stubborn?' Faramir asked Pippin.

'Yes,' answered the hobbit. 'She can actually be a lot more stubborn than this, but I suspect that she's only doing it to annoy Gandalf.'

'Why would she do that?'

'Long story short, she'd rather be in Rohan and Gandalf put her in a position where she really had no choice but to come here. The only people she isn't taking out her frustration on appear to be you and me. So far she's successfully annoyed Lord Denethor to no end and she's inclined to snap at Gandalf every so often.'

'She's beautiful,' Faramir murmured to himself.

Pippin heard and wondered whether Faramir's seemingly innocent statement meant more than it seemed to. He decided to let it slide and returned his attention to Alanna and Gandalf.

'Please?' asked Gandalf. 'Please please please?'

'Oh fine,' she sighed. 'But only because I don't like seeing a grown man beg.'

'How did you get up there?' asked Faramir. 'More to the point, how will you get down?'

'Like this.'

Alanna carefully stood up on the gate and looked over the edge, as if judging the distance. She then sprang off the gate on the shadowy side, twisted in midair and became a small tortoiseshell cat. Then, to the shock of everyone present, save Gandalf and Pippin, the cat disappeared. Everyone looked around wildly until the cat slunk out of a shadow and started washing its paws looking very much like the cat that got the cream.

'When you've quite finished showing off,' Gandalf said warningly.

The cat hissed at him but transformed into Alanna. This caused all the men to stare at her. She gave them all a look that clearly said "What?" and dragged Pippin and Faramir, who were closest to her, away to speak with Denethor.

oOoOoOoOo

**Edoras, earlier that morning...**

Elladan, Elrohir, Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli, Legolas, Merry, Éomer, Théoden and Éowyn were saddling their horses and generally getting ready to ride to Dunharrow, where the army would assemble.

Elladan and Elrohir were deliberately being slow, just to annoy Legolas. Everyone laughed when Legolas lost it and, quite literally, dragged a pair of contrite twins down to the stables and stood close by looking menacing while the twins saddled their horses in the fastest time ever recorded.

'See?' Legolas said in mock surprise when they were done. 'You **can** work quickly. You just need some... encouragement.'

'When he says encouragement,' Elladan clarified for the others.

'He means dragging us here and threatening to use us as live bait in a trap for the Nazgûl if we don't step on it,' Elrohir continued.

'And we have heard from our little sister that His Royal Highness, Prince Legolas of Mirkwood, to give him his full title, does not, under any circumstances, make idle threats,' Elladan completed.

'And the irony?' Legolas said, rolling his eyes at the twins. 'I am more than twenty years younger than both of you and yet I can still boss the pair of you around. Now come **on**! We'll never get there if we don't go soon.'

'You're twenty years younger than them?' asked Éomer. 'If anyone had asked, I would have said that you were older than them!'

'Funnily enough,' Legolas answered drily, 'that's exactly what their father **and** both of their sisters say.'

'Oh. My. Gods,' Aragorn said, genuinely shocked. 'Alanna and Arwen actually agree on something?!'

'That's what I thought.'

'Exactly how old are you?' Éomer asked Legolas.

'100,' Legolas said, effortlessly swinging himself onto his horse. 'Now can we **please** get going? Or are we going to sit here for the rest of eternity?'

'We elves can be very impatient,' Elladan stated, just in case anyone had missed this fact.

'That was just another-' began Elrohir.

'If either of you come out with **one more** "interesting fact",' Legolas said icily, 'I swear to you I **will** use you as bait...**after** I deposit the pair of you on top of Isengard and leave you there for two days. And, as you have no doubt heard from Alanna, I am quite capable of doing that.'

The twins, seeing that Legolas was about as close to losing his temper as he could be without actually losing his temper, scrambled onto their horses. Everyone followed their lead and ten minutes later they were all ready to head off to Dunharrow.

**Dunharrow, nine hours later...**

Théoden and his part of his army (plus a few others) arrived at Dunharrow. Dunharrow was a place near a very large mountain and was also where the army was camped. King Théoden and certain others were placed in a spot about halfway up the mountain where there was space enough for several tents. You could only get to it by way of a steep path that zig-zagged up the side of the mountain.

When Théoden arrived, he discovered that the entire army of Rohan consisted of only six thousand men.

'Six thousand won't be enough to break through the lines of Mordor,' Aragorn said to Théoden when they discovered the number of men.

'No,' Théoden replied, 'but we will fight for our allies all the same.'

'Cheery,' mumbled Elladan and Elrohir in unison.

The twins then discovered that Legolas had not forgiven them for making everyone late as the elf prince appeared at their shoulders and glared at them.

The elves then spotted something unusual about the behaviour of the men of Rohan.

'The horses are restless,' Elladan began.

'And the men are quiet,' completed his twin.

Gimli then spotted a narrow path leading into the mountain.

'That road there,' he said. 'Where does that lead?'

Surprisingly, it was Legolas who answered.

'That is the road to the Dimholt,' he said, then caught the confused look on Gimli's face and clarified. 'The door under the mountain.'

'No one who enters there ever survives,' Éomer said. 'That mountain is evil.'

'How do you know all this stuff?' Elladan asked Legolas, a sentiment that was echoed by most of the others there.

'Did your father never at least **try** to teach you two something about the world you live in?'

'Well he did **try**...' began Elrohir.

'He wasn't very successful, though,' admitted Elladan. 'We were just-'

'Too fidgety?' finished Legolas, rightly guessing what Elladan had been about to say.

'Some of what he tried to teach us soaked through, just not that bit,' Elladan continued.

'Well you two were very lucky that you managed to get out of it because you cannot begin to imagine the boredom that Alanna and I had to endure during lessons,' Legolas said. 'In any case, the fact that I paid **some** attention during lessons is how I know what that road is.'

'Why do I get the feeling that I'll be learning a lot more than I would like about that road?' asked Boromir. 'And first-hand too.'

'I haven't the foggiest,' answered Legolas. 'And now I think we all should... Elladan? Elrohir?'

'Yes, Your Highness?' asked the twins in unison, bowing.

'Is that who I think it is, riding up the path?'

Everyone looked down and saw a lone rider on a white horse coming up the path. He was hooded and cloaked, but the three elves all knew instinctively who it was.

'Yes,' said the twins.

'What is he doing here?' asked Legolas.

'I know not, my liege,' said Elladan.

This earned him a glare from Legolas. Once the rider was near the top, however, Aragorn turned to ask Legolas who the rider was but the elf had gone. Boromir tapped Aragorn on the shoulder and pointed. Aragorn turned and saw Legolas disappear around a corner. Aragorn raised an eyebrow.

'Something tells me that he has something to hide,' Boromir said.

'Something tells me that that rider is Lord Elrond,' Aragorn added.

It was. Lord Elrond, for reasons unknown to everyone save Aragorn, had appeared at Dunharrow. He and Aragorn disappeared into Théoden's tent to discuss the upcoming battle, which, the twins thought, was all anyone talked about these days.

According to them, it was Minas Tirith this, and Sauron that and who knows what else and, seeing as they found this incredibly boring, Elladan and Elrohir recruited Boromir and Gimli to help them find Legolas.

They found him in the most inaccessible place at the army camp. Legolas was sitting on top of one of the cliffs that bordered the road to the Dimholt.

'How the heck did you get up there?' Boromir called up incredulously.

'I flew,' Legolas said airily.

'Of course you did,' Gimli said.

'I think Alanna has been a bad influence on you,' said Elladan.

Boromir opened his mouth to say something but Legolas interrupted him.

'And no, I will not come down,' he said, guessing what Boromir had been about to ask. 'Not until Lord Elrond has left.'

'We elves can be incredibly stubborn,' said Elladan.

'Two words,' Legolas called down before Elrohir could say one word. 'Live. Bait.'

The twins decided to shut up and looked around to see their father leaving and Aragorn saddling his horse with a new sword in his hand. The foursome looked up to see if Legolas had spotted this and saw that he had disappeared. They all looked around and saw him holding the reins of the others', already saddled, horses.

'How did you...' Gimli stuttered. 'You were just...'

'I'll explain later,' Legolas hissed, handing each of them the reins of their horses. He then raised his voice as Aragorn drew nearer. 'And just where do you think you are going?'

'Oh no, Legolas,' Aragorn said. 'Not this time. This time you stay here.'

'Have you learned nothing of the stubbornness of elves?' asked Elladan, appearing with his horse. 'Prince Legolas in particular.'

Boromir, Gimli and Elrohir stepped into view as well.

'Face it, Aragorn,' Elrohir said. 'We're going with you.'

Aragorn grudgingly acquiesced and the others got onto their horses.

'Wait,' Boromir said. 'What about Merry? Shouldn't he come with us?'

'Battle is no place for hobbits,' Aragorn said, a tone of finality in his voice. 'He will stay in Rohan with Éowyn.'

'Hang on a minute,' Elrohir said. 'Where are we going?'

Aragorn pointed to the road through the mountain. The twins went a very unflattering shade of green. Legolas laughed.

'Come on, you two,' he called, riding forward and disappearing between the cliffs.

'We'll never survive!' cried Elladan.

'Nonsense,' Legolas's voice floated back to them. 'You're only saying that because no one ever has.'

The twins, looked at each other, shrugged and rode after Legolas. Aragorn and Boromir, with Gimli on the horse behind him, had no choice but to follow the elves and soon, they had all disappeared into the darkness...

**A Note From Angela and Opal**

**Opal: Meet MishFish. Hear the ribbing I have to put up with from her every other day.**

**Angela: It isn't that bad.**

**Opal: It's annoying, distracting and not true.**

**Angela: Then why did you act that way in the disclaimer?**

**Opal: Because she threatened to tie me down in her front yard and let her dog and my dog loose in the same yard if I didn't write that disclaimer, and for those who might be thinking that that doesn't sound like too bad a punishment, think again. I wouldn't survive five minutes because I'd get trampled after drowning in dog drool.**

**Angela: And I'd be sitting on the roof laughing my head off the entire time. **

**Opal: And now for something completely different. Due to mid-year exams and other school related events, we will be taking a break from posting for a while. There will be no posting for at least three weeks, most likely four. This also gives me time to actually write Chapter 17.**

**Angela: Anyway, thank you all for reading and please review! We'll see you all in four weeks!**


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen- Things Aren't Looking Good**

**A/N: Opal: We're back and we have survived our exams... just. **

**Angela: And we're here with another chapter! **

**Opal: Wow really I never would have picked that.**

**Angela: Shut up. Now enjoy the chapter readers!**

Angela: *storms in angrily* ALRIGHT! WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY CHOCOLATE!

Opal: Nothing! *futilely tries to look innocent* What are you on about?

Angela: *rants* Well I was trying to get on a sugar high for our disclaimers, because they are so much funnier when we are crazy and then all the chocolate cake was gone and so were the cookies and the brownies... Oops?

Opal: YOU HAD BROWNIES AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?

Angela: *hides behind computer* Now Opal, you know you're not supposed to eat brownies after that time when you got that restraining order...

Opal: THAT WAS NOT A RESTRAINING ORDER!

Angela: *whispers* We don't own Lord of the Rings, just Alanna and Charlotte, and Legolas' overprotective personality. *screams* Ahhhhhh!

Opal: *drags Angela away* Now you come with me!

Angela: HELP!

oOoOoOoOo

**The end of the road to the Dimholt, now...**

Aragorn, Elladan, Elrohir, Legolas, Gimli and Boromir had reached the end of their road under the sun and they were now facing a journey underground. There was a doorway leading into a tunnel that lead under the mountain and this was where the six of them were headed.

'Remind me why we're doing this again?' Elladan said, getting off his horse.

'If I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times, Elladan,' Legolas snapped. 'We. Don't. Have. Enough. Men. We need reinforcements if Minas Tirith is to be saved and this is apparently the place to get them. Although only Aragorn can do it.'

'Right,' said both of the twins.

'Well why don't you all go first,' Elrohir continued. 'And just you remember that Elladan and I are behind you.'

'About thirty-five miles behind us,' Aragorn said, having learnt that the only way to get the twins underground was to trick them into it.

Elladan and Elrohir looked indignant and made small noises of protest but made no signs of leading the charge, as it were. At least, until...

'Scared, you two?' Legolas asked, moving over to stand in the doorway. 'I'm not.'

With that, the elf disappeared under the mountain.

'Hang on a minute!' Aragorn cried as Elladan and Elrohir, not wishing to be humiliated by someone who was twenty years younger than them, darted after Legolas.

'Oh what a delightful place,' Elladan's voice echoed back.

'Kind of spooky,' continued his twin.

'Where'd Legolas go?'

'Not sure.'

'Where are you Legolas?'

'Over here!' echoed Legolas's voice.

'Found you!' said Elrohir.

'You, idiot,' said his brother. 'That's my arm!'

'BOO!' yelled Legolas.

The twins gave rather girlish screams and there were two muffled thuds. It sounded as though Legolas had sneaked up on the twins and scared them, causing the twins in question to whirl about and trip over. Grumbles from the twins and raucous laughs from Legolas echoed out of the tunnel.

'They ARE an immature bunch, aren't they,' Boromir sighed. 'Alanna has been a bad influence on them. Either that or they've been a bad influence on her.'

'I thought this was supposed to be **my** quest,' Aragorn called to the elves indignantly. 'How come you lot are all going first?'

'Come on, slowcoach,' said Legolas, poking his head back out. 'We can't hang around all day.'

The elf then disappeared into the darkness for the second time that morning.

'Does that answer your question, laddie?' asked Gimli.

'Yes,' Aragorn sighed. 'Now, I think we'd best be going before those three troublemakers get too far ahead.'

Without waiting for an answer, Aragorn followed the elves into the tunnel. Boromir went after him but Gimli was a bit nervous and lingered outside.

'Well,' he said to himself. 'This is a thing unheard of! Elves will go underground, and a dwarf dare not. Oh, I'd never hear the end of it.'

With that, Gimli plunged into the darkness as well.

oOoOoOoOo

**Minas Tirith, Denethor's throne room, two hours before Aragorn and Co. arrive at the end of the road...**

'You sent the Ring of Power into Mordor!' Denethor cried. 'In the hands of a witless Halfling!'

Faramir and Alanna were in the throne room at Minas Tirith and Denethor was not happy with his son. Faramir had met Frodo and Sam in Ithilien, the land that lay between the Anduin River and the mountains of Mordor, and had sent them on their way to Mount Doom, much to his father's displeasure.

Alanna was present as a precaution, should Denethor get a bit too angry with Faramir. Denethor did not know that she was there, although Faramir did and his eyes kept flickering towards her hiding spot, just behind the white throne. Ordinarily, Denethor would have noticed her already but she was in her cat form and well hidden.

_Faramir will give you away,_ Charlotte said with her thoughts. _I just know he will._

_For once, I agree with you,_ Alanna thought. _Although Denethor probably won't know that it's me. I don't think his tree goes all the way to the top branch._

_Alanna, please be careful of Denethor. I know that he is about eleven and a half eggs short of the dozen but neither of us know what he is capable of! Please don't stir him up too much._

_Fine. I won't. Now can we please listen to this?_

Denethor was now ranting about how Boromir would have brought him the Ring.

'He would not have brought it, Father,' Faramir said. 'In taking it he would have fallen. And when he returned, you would not have known your son.'

'You know nothing of this matter!' Denethor snapped. 'The Ring should have been brought back to the Citadel. Not to be used... except at the uttermost end of need.'

'I would not use the Ring,' Faramir answered. 'Not if Minas Tirith was falling in ruins and I alone could save her.'

'Leave me!' Denethor shouted, thoroughly sick of the whole affair.

Faramir, seeing that Denethor was getting angry, bolted. Alanna slipped out after him and followed him down a corridor to where Pippin was sitting.

The hobbit had agreed to serve Denethor in Gondor's army and was now sitting in his new uniform wondering aloud why he had ever done such a ridiculous thing. He still had time to back down as he had not yet sworn his oath, and knew it, but now that he had agreed, he felt obliged to do it.

'It was a good thing that you did,' Faramir said, causing Pippin to jump.

Alanna resumed the form of an elf and said, 'It was. Oh, and Faramir?'

'Yes?' asked the man warily.

'Do **not** believe your father when he says that Boromir is dead,' Alanna said firmly. 'He was alive and well the last time I saw him.'

'Now you're just confusing me. I don't know who to believe. My father-'

'Whose sanity is questionable,' Alanna muttered to herself.

'Or an elf I've only just met but who **is** the daughter of Lord Elrond of Rivendell.'

'I have an excellent idea,' Alanna said. 'Let's change the subject.'

'I didn't think they'd find a uniform that would fit me,' Pippin said, catching on.

'It once belonged to a boy of the city,' Faramir laughed, choosing to ignore the sudden change of subject. 'A rather foolish one who spent more time slaying dragons than attending to his studies.'

'This was yours?!' Pippin asked.

Alanna laughed when Faramir nodded.

'Personally,' she said, 'I don't blame you. Lessons are the most boring thing ever invented.'

'I'm not arguing with you there,' Faramir agreed.

'But, while lessons are boring, slaying dragons is all well and good when you hear about it in stories, but when you have to actually do it in real life... Well, let's just say that it isn't as easy as it sounds. It isn't all "And with a single shot, the valiant hero slew the mighty beast". Well, it sort of is, but only **after** an hour of faffing about trying to distract it enough to kill it and getting seriously injured in the process.'

'And you speak from experience do you?' Faramir asked skeptically.

'As a matter of fact I do. It's a long story, which I shall tell you later I promise, but suffice it to say that I fell off the dragon in question, and was almost killed, seconds before Legolas shot it.'

'I see. Who's Legolas?'

'A friend of mine.'

'A very, **very** good friend of yours,' Pippin said, teasingly. 'What was it that Boromir said about your farewell to him? Ummm... I can't quite recall...'

'Don't you dare say another word, Peregrin Took!'

'Oh yes! "Thoroughly non-verbal" said Boromir. Merry and I didn't understand him so Aragorn translated for us. He said that what Boromir meant was "She's kissing him like there's no tomorrow".'

Alanna went scarlet. She darted around Faramir and smacked Pippin on the side of the head.

'I see,' Faramir said slyly. 'An extra special friend of yours then.'

Alanna scowled at Faramir and might have slapped him too, had Gandalf not appeared at that moment.

'Lord Denethor has calmed down and wishes to see all of you now,' said the wizard. 'He wants Pippin to swear fealty now and has an errand to send Faramir on.'

The three of them followed Gandalf back towards to throne room.

'Why am I suddenly really quite worried?' Alanna muttered to herself.

Faramir glanced at her but she wasn't looking at him.

oOoOoOoOo

**Denethor's throne room...**

Alanna and Faramir stood by and watched while Pippin swore that he would serve Denethor. Faramir glanced at Alanna and was rather surprised to see her looking very agitated.

'What's wrong?' he asked her in a low voice.

'Two things,' she replied, also keeping her voice down. 'One) I really, really, really miss Legolas and the others. And two) I really, really, really don't trust your father. I'm sorry but I just don't.'

'Why do you not trust him? He is a very capable man.'

'It's... hard to explain. I don't know exactly why I don't trust him but I get the same feeling around him as I did around a man called Gríma Wormtongue.'

'An instant feeling that you shouldn't trust him?'

'Exactly.'

'What did this Gríma person do? Was it before you decided not to trust him or after?'

'Tried to kill me after I decided not to trust him.'

'Ah.'

'Faramir!' called Denethor who had just finished talking with Pippin. 'Come here.'

Faramir walked forward but Alanna stayed behind, lurking in the shadows.

'Yes, Father?' Faramir asked.

'I do not think that the River in Pelennor should be abandoned so lightly,' Denethor answered. 'The city of Osgiliath must be retaken.'

'Osgiliath is overrun!' Faramir cried. 'There is no chance of retaking it!'

'Is there a Captain here who still has the courage to do his lord's will?'

Faramir hesitated.

_Don't do it,_ Alanna thought.

_He will,_ Charlotte shot back. _Not everyone finds it as easy to disobey their father as you do._

_**I**__ find it __**easy**__ to disobey my father?_

_Yes. He told you not to go on this quest, didn't he? He told you not to go into Moria, didn't he? And those things you have done._

_Oh shut up._

Alanna and Charlotte's silent argument was cut short by Faramir making his decision.

'I will go,' he said. 'But if I should return, think better of me father.'

Faramir then turned and walked resolutely towards the door.

'That will depend upon the manner of your return,' Denethor muttered.

Faramir heard and hesitated but then left the room. There was stunned silence. Then some stunned silence. Then some more stunned silence. Before even more stunned silence. Then another period of stunned silence which Pippin promptly broke.

'That didn't go quite as well as it could have,' said the hobbit.

'Wow really,' Alanna said sarcastically. 'I never noticed.'

Alanna was about to follow Faramir but Pippin grabbed her arm to stop her.

'You're going with Faramir, aren't you,' Pippin said.

Alanna nodded.

'Alanna, no!' the hobbit cried. 'You'll be killed!'

'I at least have to try and stop him,' Alanna said. 'And, besides, if I don't get out of this city soon, even if it isn't for long, I am going to scream.'

With that, she extracted her arm from Pippin's grip and walked towards the doors. Gandalf barred her way.

'Gandalf,' Alanna said warningly.

'I don't like your tone,' Gandalf said coolly.

'I don't like your shoes.'

Gandalf looked down. 'What's wrong with my shoes?' he asked. He looked up again. Alanna was gone. Gandalf turned around and saw her walking towards the stables.

'Hey!' the wizard called.

Alanna turned and laughed before continuing on her way.

'How are we going to explain this?' Gandalf asked rhetorically.

oOoOoOoOo

Faramir had assembled his company of men and horses and they were now riding slowly down towards the main gates of the city. Faramir was about to instruct the guards to open the gates when he spotted Alanna standing in front of them.

'Oh you have got to be kidding me,' Faramir muttered to himself.

'I heard that,' said Alanna.

'Alanna,' began Faramir.

'No "ifs", no "buts",' she said. 'This mission is suicide and that is that.'

'I would gladly give my life to defend my city.'

'Oh stop being an idiot! Don't you see? You'll all be killed the instant you get within bowshot of Osgiliath.'

'But they aren't very good shots,' Faramir countered.

'Give me strength,' Alanna muttered.

'And we have to try,' Faramir continued. 'Orders are orders.'

'I'm giving you three options. One) You stay here and let me deal with Denethor for you. Two) You go to Osgiliath and I go with you. Or, three) I knock you off that horse and drag you back up to the Citadel!'

'You wouldn't do that!'

A mischievous gleam leapt into Alanna's eyes.

'Okay, maybe you would,' Faramir amended. 'But I don't think you should come with us.'

'If you're going,' Alanna said firmly, 'I'm coming and I'd like to see you try and stop me.'

It was at that moment that Gandalf emerged from the crowd of people who had come to see the men off.

'Alanna, please!' the wizard cried. 'It's suicide!'

'Enough with the suicide thing already!' Alanna snapped. 'I know that it's hopeless but if I don't get out of here soon I will scream! Elves are not made for cities of men and I'm starting to question my sanity!'

Without further ado, Alanna signalled the guards to open the gates and whistled for her horse. Asfaloth clopped out of the shadows, fully saddled and bridled. Alanna swung herself into the saddle and was about to join the men when Gandalf decided that really desperate times called for equally desperate measures.

'What about Legolas?' Gandalf asked. 'What would happen to him if you died?'

Alanna hesitated and Gandalf continued, eager to press his advantage.

'He loves you, Alanna. If you died, it would break his heart.'

Alanna was silent for a substantial period of time before she made her decision.

'If worst comes to worst,' she said haltingly, 'I can get out of the battle field instantly. I'll be fine.'

Faramir gave his men the order to get going and, without a backwards glance, Alanna followed.

'She's going to her death,' Gandalf said sadly.

**A Note From Angela And Opal:**

**Opal: Hello everyone! We're back again, hope you enjoyed the chapter! And I've decided that we are going to change the posting schedule...**

**Angela: Again? Make up your mind, woman!**

**Opal: Shut up. Anyway, we are going to post every two weeks from now on.**

**Angela: But, that aside, at the risk of sounding clichéd... NOOOOOOO!**

**Opal: Let me guess... The cliffies again?**

**Angela: *sarcasm* No, the cats. Of course the cliffies! Why do you do this to us?!**

**Opal: Because I'm evil. And it isn't THAT much of a cliffie. I can do much better than this.**

**Angela: Well, yes. That's very true, but Alanna is about to go on a mission from which it is likely that she won't return and you end the chapter!**

**Opal: Well you'll just have to wait for the next chapter, won't you?**

**Angela: *smacks Opal around the head* Well then, you'll have to go and write the next chapter now, won't you?**

**Opal: *grumbling* Oh, fine! But I get to do the next disclaimer. **

**Angela: Fine by me.**


	17. REALLY SUPER IMPORTANT AN MUST READ!

Hey guys, this is not an abandonment!

We, the cowriters of this story, Angela and Opal, have created a shared account called _Princess Angela Kate Koboi_, and we will be moving this story there. Thanks for all your cooperation, this note will be up for a week, and then this story will be deleted. Thanks!


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